Hazard
by Crimson Redstreak
Summary: Essentially this is just SA3. A Sonic the hedgehog tied in with a series of Crossovers I've been doing for years. This one involves Shadow and a mysterious lizard girl claiming to be another of Gerald's secret projects.
1. Prologue: Not so Happy Birthday

The 3rd Cross:  
  
Hazard  
  
Disclaimer: All of the characters except Hazard and Delmon in this fic do not belong to me. they belong to their rightful owners. So now you STILL can't sue me!  
  
Prologue  
  
A scientist sips his coffee, although it is scalding hot he chugs on it. He thanks God for the sensation of pain or any feeling at all after what he's been through. For the last fifty or so years he'd been trudging and hiding within the Eclipse Cannon's core. Getting his only sustenance from the suspension fluid the biolizard that his colleague, Professor Gerald Robotnik created, to keep it dormant. For without a jump of chaos emerald energy the creature would die in a matter of minutes. Now however it is dead, one year to this day.  
  
The scientist knows that he can never go back to the planet he was born on, for his body is decaying at an astounding rate. His mind is also torn apart and confused with the memory of seeing the biolizard destroyed by Sonic and Shadow. He looks ahead at a project that took a lifetime to perfect and build. He stands up and inserts a disk into the side of the console. He cuts on the power and turns off the life support, his work done and his body spent, he walks over to one of the glass windows and smashes it with a nearby hammer. His body is sucked out into space away from the ARK space colony. Without struggling he lets go of his life just as a new one comes into being.  
  
A month later the tube in the abandoned lab explodes. Inside the broken remains is an orange lizard with a machine on it's back. It takes it's first breaths in it's airless environment with the machine's cord in it's neck. As it stands up the door on the other side of the room swishes open. G.U.N. security drones march in a single line into the lab. The lizard watches intently as the dozen robots line up in two rows of six. One row kneels half-way to the floor and charges their laser arms. All at once the robots blast the room into an oven. Their beams even melt the command console into molten slag, their fire centralized on the lizard.  
  
As the green and yellow lasers cease fire and the unbelievable light dims something in all of the smoke and gloom moves. The lizard is still alive. Before the robots could charge their blasters, the lizard springs into the air and into the dozen automatons. One by one, the creature destroyed them and tore their limbs off to beat the next one with. When it was all said and done it looked down at it's handiwork: Twelve successful kills, but no blood. It didn't feel proud, but fulfilled that it had destroyed the threat to itself. As it walked through the silent hallways it knew where it was going, as if it had been through this place an infinite number of times.  
  
As it opened the door to it's final destination the lizard wondered many things. What it was, how it knew the security codes for the doors and why it wasn't dead after being shot by a laser barrage? All of these thoughts went away as it opened a locker with the name 'Shadow' on it. On one of the shelves were a pair of Scorchers and arm-pads. Feeling a bit naked it put them on. It 'skated' the hallways at a moderate speed and went to the main observation deck. On one of the screens was an old looking scientist with a white mustache. The image seemed to be on pause. It put it's clawed finger on the console and pushed play.  
  
"--it cannot be disabled. All of you ungrateful humans who took everything away from me will feel my loss and despair..."  
  
The lizard recoiled in horror as it felt the madness and pain behind that voice. It clicked off the image thinking to itself," Who was that? And what did he mean about everyone feeling his loss and despair?" Soon the database in the computer yielded the information to the orange hacker in the form of a diary. The lizard downloaded it into a pocket computer from nearby and sat down on one of the consoles. It began to read.  
  
"Was it a mistake to make the ultimate life-form? I thought it would be something that would benefit mankind, but then the military landed on the colony that day. They had been sent to destroy the research I had been working on. Maria, my granddaughter, and my colleagues at the research facility I hope you are all safe."  
  
The next week's entry: "The colony was completely shut down under the premise that there had been an accident. I found that G.U.N. killed Maria and my colleagues as well as all those in the colony. Shadow, a willing subject and research student who was assigned to take care of Maria was captured on the east coast of the Great continent. Maria meant everything to me, I couldn't bear the thought that she died because of my research. I lost everything, I had nothing left to live for, I went insane! All I could think of was to avenge her."  
  
A month later:  
  
"I was able to create the ultimate life-form in the form of a bio-lizard on ARK. The military will kill me in a few days so I've also laid plans down for project: Lazarus in a microchip on one of Shadow's bracelets. If you are reading this, Project: Lazarus, find Shadow the hedgehog. On him you shall find the key to everything."  
  
The next entry from last year:  
  
"This is Dr. Julian Robotnik of the house of Ivo. If you are reading this Finalhazard hasn't killed everyone on Mobius..."  
  
As it continues to read the lizard is shocked to find that Shadow is presumed dead. It throws the minicomputer across the room. It walks back over to the console and furiously types away. Files about Shadow and the weapon on the colony were flying by on the screen. Each file was inessential to the being reading through them. Finally it came to the file folder it was questing for, the profiles on Julian, Gerald, and Maria Kintobor... 


	2. Chapter 1: Wannabe

Chapter 1  
  
Not far from the now bustling city of Robotropolis is the Great forest, a green, lush land that seems to go on for miles in every direction. Many creatures call this place home and a safe haven from Dr.Robotnik and his horde of minions. It is also the location of a small valley that the inhabitants call Knothole. It has gone over a massive change in the last few years since the defeat of the first Dr.Robotnik. From a rebel base, to a home for roboticized outcasts, and now it has grown into a city all it's own. In one of the classrooms of a local school there resides one of Mobius' greatest heroes, who now seems to be flunking physics, Sonic the hedgehog.  
  
Ever since the new government was put into place and the population had expanded past just a crowd of rebel fighters, things have become more mundane. To Sonic and many of the 'old' Freedom Fighters it meant it was time to go to school. The hedgehog in question is now drooping his head between his hands trying to stay awake, then someone behind the hedgehog passed him a note. Sonic opened the folded piece of paper and read.  
  
'Meet me near the Great Oak Slide after school. Come alone.'  
  
'Must be Sal,' Sonic thought to himself, remembering the last time he saw the princess. As most school days go the last period usually goes pretty fast, but like all things it was as slow as ever to Sonic. A spit second before the bell rang for dismissal Sonic had his books in hand and was out of the door, a blur racing ahead of the rest of the regular herd of people. Sonic leaped off the front stairs of the school, grinded on the railing, and landed running on the pavement. Coming to a pond ahead he simply ran over the water spraying anyone on the banks on either side. As the slide came into view Sonic looked around for any booby traps or guards, ever since a few weeks ago when Geoffrey St. John set a trap at the end of the slide Sonic had been wary to go near it. Upon inspecting it he looked around for whoever gave him the note.  
  
"I see you came, blue hedgehog," came a scratchy, low voice. "And I see you came alone."  
  
'That isn't Sally,' Sonic thought to himself. "Show yourself."  
  
"As you wish," the same person said as they walked out from behind a tree. It wasn't any taller than Sonic and hid it's form beneath a dark-colored cloak.  
  
"Who are you?" Sonic asked stepping closer to the stranger.  
  
"The ultimate life-form..."  
  
"Shadow!? Is that you?" Sonic nearly shouted.  
  
"That fake?" The stranger laughed. "He was nothing compared to what I am."  
  
"Who are you to talk about Shadow like that? He saved all of Mobius and probably you too!"  
  
"Ah yes. You must think I give a damn. I don't care what my predecessor did, all I want is HIS bracelet and MY digivice."  
  
"What are you talking about?" Sonic said stepping back.  
  
"Why, I think you know what I'm talking about. The Chaos digivice that 'creature' gave you. Now you can hand it over in a nice and friendly way or..."  
  
"Or?"  
  
"I can take it."  
  
Sonic set down his bag and took out the green shining device. "You want it? Come and get it!" Sonic tucked it into his right glove.  
  
"If that's the way you wanna play it?"  
  
The stranger hopped into the air and flip-kicked off of Sonic's head, leaving him dazed. Sonic got up and span into the air as a ball, headed straight into his enemy's direction. Just as he was a few inches away something engulfed him. He fell to the ground tearing through the stranger's robes. Sonic rose to his feet and looked at his new foe. Apparently it was an orange lizard wearing the same kind of sneakers/jet skates Shadow had and black arm and knee pads. It also sported a machine on it's back that looked like the life support system from the biolizard. From the voice it appeared to be female.  
  
Sonic's eyes zeroed in on the machine on her back and leaped into the air for a track-attack. At the high arc of the jump Sonic propelled forward, straight toward the lizard's back. The lizard twisted around and smacked the blue blur with her tail. Sonic went flying into the air, momentarily stunned ,but as he came down his body is surrounded by an aura of energy.  
  
"Ready..."  
  
'Oh crap,' the lizard thinks as she begins to skate off at top speed.  
  
"GO!" Sonic yells as his body spins into a perpetual ball of energy tracking the lizard.  
  
The lizard picks up speed running toward the village with Sonic performing his light-speed attack not far behind. Sonic kept his speed up by bouncing off of anything he could find. He leaps through the trees with unbelievable agility. By now his body is on auto-pilot, using all of his energy to track one target. Soon enough he stops and runs up beside his opponent.  
  
"You wanna race huh?" Sonic taunts as he flies past.  
  
The dust he leaves in his wake nearly blinds her just as they enter the main living areas in Knothole Sonic begins to slow down so that he can make sure nobody gets hurt. As he comes to a large tree he does a move few can match, he grinds upon one of the roots and runs up the side of the trunk, eventually he is running the circumference of the tree. Even at this speed Sonic can hear his enemy catching up.  
  
"Still back there huh?" Sonic yells over his shoulder.  
  
"You'll never be able to outrun me, hedgehog!" The lizard mouths as she keeps gaining distance.  
  
"Okay, then keep following."  
  
Sonic grabs one of the vines hanging on the tree and swings around to one of the higher platforms settled into the tree. He keeps flying from branch to branch, confident that no one would be able to keep up with him at the speed he's going. As he leaps up to one of the higher branches he concentrates his energy through the digivice in his glove. Suddenly the entire tree begins to shake as Sonic calls forth an upgraded version of his newest attack: Sonic Tornado. The branches whip and swing as a whirlwind surrounds the tree. People on the ground hold on to their belongings as the winds kick up and nearly sweep them off the earth. Sonic feels gratified that that attack could have even swung him off. As he looks around his feet are swept from under him and he plummets to the forest floor.  
  
Halfway down Sonic feels that some extra weight across his chest for a second and then it simply disappears. He slams into the ground and curses at the pain he feels in his chest, also at the fact that the glove on his right hand is gone. He gets up and his white glove floats down from the canopy, he grabs it from the air just as he hears a voice yell," CHAOS CONTROL!!"  
  
A green and white light flashes in front of Sonic and his enemy appears. The lizard's cold face is cracked in a toothy gleeful smile. Sonic doesn't even waste his time attacking, knowing full well that it would seem like he was moving at super slow motion to her.  
  
"Who are you?" Sonic asks clutching his chest.  
  
"Like I said before: I am the Ultimate Life-form," she says. "My name is Hazard. Now that I have my Chaos digivice, where is my bracelet?"  
  
"I don't know and I don't care," Sonic said. "In fact I wouldn't be surprised if...Bunnie now!"  
  
A metal fist shot into Hazard's life-support machine. She collapses to the ground clutching at the wire leading to her chest, praying for it to let her breathe. Sonic moves closer to grab the device from her quivering hand. Just as he touches her skin Sonic falls to the ground screaming in pain. A burning sensation crawls across his body from his hand down to his toes, it only last for a second but it is unbearable.  
  
"Sonic! You alright?" Bunnie asks going to her hurt friend.  
  
"Don't worry about me," Sonic grunts. "Get the device from her before..."  
  
"'Gasp' C-chaos...Cont-control!" Hazrad yells as her lungs refill with air.  
  
Her body disappears in a flash of light and energy, soon enough there is no evidence of her presence or the battle that just took place.  
  
"Y'all okay now sugah-hog?" Bunnie asks nervously, helping Sonic stand up.  
  
"Yeah, all that was hurt was my pride," Sonic grumbled.  
  
"What was that thing?"  
  
"I don't know, but I already know the answers can be found on ARK."  
  
"ARK?"  
  
"I'll fill you in later, but first we have to get the gang together."  
  
Sonic ran off at top speed to find Tails. 'That Hazard thing, whatever it was, is after that bracelet I found when Silver Shadow (not Hyper!) disappeared after we beat the biolizard. Last I saw of it, the thing was with that spy, Rouge the bat. I just hope we find her before that Shadow wannabe does.'  
  
On the space colony ARK the life support systems have come back online. Through the empty halls the sound of labored breathing is heard. Hazard had begun to use her lungs for the first time without the machine connected to her back and each breath or movement became a chore. She looked around the lab until she found the digivice, once in her claws the device began to emit a beeping sound and a soft green glow. Slowly but surely her breathing became normal. As Hazard put the device down the air became thick again. To stop the torment Hazard reconnected her life support system to the implants on her back and chest.  
  
'Dammit!' she thought as she began to breath through the tube again. 'Unless I get more emeralds I'll be forced to wear this-this 'thing' for the rest of my life. Or...'  
  
Feverishly, Hazard removed her life support system and connected the digivice to the power core. As she reconnected the implant it melded to her back and around her arms and legs. It wasn't just a machine now, but a part of her body.  
  
'Maybe now my weak spot won't be so obvious,' Hazard thought as she walked over to the computer console. As she typed at record speed images and text all seemed to blur until she came upon the file she was looking for. A research project on Chaos Emeralds and Project: Lazarus... 


	3. Chapter 2: Intorductions should be made

Chapter 2  
  
He awakens to the sound of screaming and the lights dimming again. The pounding of his head isn't helping the fact that he is incarcerated in a small 6/10 cell. He walks over to the sink and turns on the water.  
  
"I see you're finally awake," someone next door says.  
  
The voice seems to come from the vent on the left side of the cell. As he looks through he sees a partially familiar face, a hedgehog face.  
  
"Sonic? What are you in here for?" the guy asks.  
  
The hedgehog on the other side of the vent laughs, a cruel chuckling sound and bangs his hand on the grate.  
  
"Lemme guess...You're not Sonic," he says blandly.  
  
"Nope. I see you've met my friend."  
  
"Who are you then?"  
  
"Shadow."  
  
"Okay then, Shadow. Where in the name of Zeus's butt-hole are we?"  
  
"G.U.N. international mutant detention center. We're all here because we seem to pose a threat to the planet."  
  
"You don't look so dangerous."  
  
Shadow barks out a laugh and says," I may not look like it but I can run up to Mach-2, not to mention, I have training in all kinds of armed and unarmed combat. I'm in fact, I believe I am a, no the ultimate killing machine."  
  
"Then how'd you get caught then?"  
  
"They plucked me out of the ocean, I was too weak to fight at the time. Besides, I've been pardoned on most of the major offenses, I'll be off scot- free in ten years."  
  
"Isn't that a long while?"  
  
"To humans, yes. But to me...I suppose I should start at the beginning."  
  
For the next hour Shadow told the guy next to his cell about everything that had happened to him after he signed up for Project: Shadow; the ultimate life-form, when he undertook a mission of revenge for his friend Maria, and what he had done since coming to the detention center. When Shadow finished his story the man next-door stood with him in silence.  
  
"So why are you here?" Shadow asked.  
  
"I came from another world. Like you, I longed for vengeance for a lost friend and partner, I wandered my world causing mayhem, destruction, and chaos wherever I went until I lost my mind and set loose an evil that could have killed us all. I have since been forgiven by many of my victims, but that would be my downfall, you see one of my victims got a new partner who had the power to send me forcefully into other worlds. He used it on me and scrambled my mind and my data. I can barely make sense of some of my memories anymore."  
  
"Who are you?"  
  
"Rob Herald, but you can call me Delmon."  
  
"I understand all of that, but why are you in here with me? Other than being a mutant of course."  
  
"I have the ability to transform into a monster with exceptional powers. When I came here I was confused and did some collateral damage to a small city and killed a few people. Perhaps I too should start from the beginning..." 


	4. Chapter 3: Sally's Skeptism on Sonic Adv...

Chapter 3  
  
"So let me get this straight," Sally began after hearing Sonic's story. "This black hedgehog named Shadow framed you, helped Robotnik to blow up half the moon and then saved the world. I'm sorry if I sound skeptical, Sonic, but this does sound a little eccentric. You don't have any proof. Besides yours, Tails', Knuckles' and Amy's word. You say that this Rouge person disappeared after you touched down and that Shadow died after the battle with that biolizard, too?"  
  
Sonic was on the other side of the room stuffing things into his backpack for the journey ahead. Occasionally he would nod over his shoulder and say 'yeah' or 'uh huh'. He didn't make any wisecracks or jokes or boast about what he'd done. He was way too concentrated, high strung. Sonic packed up a few socks and closed the bag. He walked across the room and shuffled past Sally on his way out the door with the squirrel trailing him.  
  
"It doesn't make any sense," Sally said. " If this Hazard... 'thing' did come from that space colony wouldn't the G.U.N. army have tried to do something by now?"  
  
Sonic stopped in his tracks and turned to face her, that determined look still on his face.  
  
"Sal, we decimated 3/4ths of what they had in their arsenal when Eggman blew up that island base of theirs," Sonic said. "I'd be surprised if one tank even survived a blast like that let alone one of the space shuttles. Besides, they've disavowed any involvement they had with the ARK incident. So that means the colony is off limits."  
  
"So what's your plan now, Sonic? Where are we going?"  
  
"To Station Square, and hopefully to ARK."  
  
Sonic walked up to the hanger area with Sally close behind. Almost no one was there to monitor the area in case, say one rogue hedgehog decided to go on an unauthorized mission. Sonic strode up to the front door of the complex. Most of it was built right into one of the mountains that hid Knothole from Robotnik's sensors. The only parts that actually showed were a the control tower and the front doors that led to the hanger itself. The moldy rusted doors weren't easy to move, even with Sally's help.  
  
Both of them sneaked past the security cameras and into the storage area. The place was dusty and smelled of mildew and stale air, not many people came down here in the first place. Many machines and objects were stored here for later use or just forgotten. There was no camera in this area since there seemed to be nothing worth stealing, really. Sonic swaggered by the memorabilia of past adventures. His old plane, the Tornado, shot down by Eggman's flying fortress; Rotor's ATV, which they combed the badlands with, until it got blown to pieces by one of Robotnik's early creations; the Suedo Sonic, the first in a long hit parade of Mecha Sonics which never seemed to succeed in their mission; low power or useless power rings, a tool that Sonic employs to this day.  
  
Sonic broke out of his nostalgia and asked," Where'd Bunnie and Tails say they'd meet us?"  
  
"In cell 1965917 S-A," Sally said, looking at the rows of failed or forgotten Freedom Fighter inventions. " I think I know how Robotnik feels after we've destroyed so many of his creations."  
  
"R-X, R-Y, R-Z...Ah-hah, S-A," Sonic exclaimed as he pulled back the tarp on the cell.  
  
Sally peeked from behind Sonic and looked at a true thing of beauty. A sleek streamlined blue jet with high power engines and missile pods on each side. Inside the cockpit Tails and Bunnie were both relaxing. Both had on a pair of earphones, listening to the stereo. Sonic leaped up on one of the wings.  
  
"Tails," Sonic said calmly to the fox in the pilot seat, he didn't respond.  
  
"Tails!" Not listening.  
  
"Tails!!" Bunnie leans forward and cranks the volume louder.  
  
"Arrgghh, MILES, TURN OFF THE FREAKIN' STEREO!!"  
  
Tails flips off his headphones and sheepishly says," Oh, hi Sonic! I didn't see you guys walk up."  
  
"Yeah, whatever. Did you finish refueling and stuff, cause we gotta go ASAP."  
  
"Yeah, a few bullet holes and a few kinks in the weapon system, but aside from that we're set to go," Tails said enthusiastically.  
  
Sally jumped into the back of the cockpit with Bunnie and realized something. "How are we supposed to get out of here?"  
  
Sonic grabbed onto the back of the craft just as his friend showed her how. He hit a special button on the control panel of the ship, almost instantly it rose up into the air and changed shape into that of a walker. Tails put his hands on the steering wheel and took off. The engine in the back roared to life as Tails sped away from the storage area and into the hanger. Tails hit the button again and took off from the hanger doors into the morning sun. 


	5. Chapter 4: Full Frontal

Chapter 4  
  
"I don't care what we did Professor, those Emeralds in storage are for legitimate research only."  
  
"Dammit, this is legitimate research! I'm trying to restore a life as well as work on your stupid weapon! If you'll just prolong my time a few more days I can successfully re-educate Shadow and work on a charging system for 'The Cannon'."  
  
"This isn't negotiable...We all know the Ultimate Life-form project is a bust with humans and the one subject that lived through the process is too unpredictable. We had to throw the hedgehog in cryo, he's too dangerous in a normal jail cell."  
  
"That's because of what you did to 'her', if not for her benefit I would never have undertaken the U.L. project in the first place. Right now I have no reason to go on, besides the guns you plant at the side of my head as I work."  
  
"...Oh, sorry Gerald. Where you waiting for me to give a damn?"  
  
"No. I suppose not. Therefore I cease to 'give a damn', as you put it. I'm putting the finishing touches on the Lazarus project and then you can let Scorpion troop do what they want to this data or me, because I want nothing more to do with you or GUN or anything else on this planet!"  
  
"Good. You've just saved me eight hours of paper-work, Professor. Since the data is complete, I suppose that you are no longer needed and our loyal scientists can begin the real work at hand."  
  
"I don't care. Just know, General that I will have my revenge."  
  
"Whatever, old man. Any last words for the camera?"  
  
"Yes..."  
  
The recording stops there. The last research file having anything to do with the chaos emeralds was that half scrambled image and audio file. It was made five minutes before Prof. Gerald was executed. The screen once again fills with his face as he repeats the death threat on Earth. The Professor had used the chaos emeralds to create space transporters that utilized the energy of a world within a data stream to transfer a person to any location on Mobius or as the Overlanders call it, Earth.  
  
The screen cuts off and the orange hacker stands in front of the monitor in tears. She can't explain why though. Gerald created the research that gave her life and even helped in the construction of ARK. Unlike Shadow and Biolizard she had never met her 'father', but still Hazard feels a great pain in seeing those images pass before her eyes as he excepts death. Unbelievable as it may be to her the tears stream freely from her eyes as she walks away from the computer console.  
  
She walks out toward the observation deck and looks out of one of the windows surrounding the room. The massive crescent of the dark-side of Earth fills the view, the Great forest is outlined by the light of the moon against the Great continent and it's ocean. She gazes out with tears still lining her eyelids, blurring the image.  
  
'GUN will pay for what they've done.' Hazard slashes her right claw against the glass, seeming to put a gash in Mobius' surface from the way the window looks. 'And I know just the way, too.'  
  
=================================================  
  
The lights dimmed again. A distinct 'ping, ping' sound could be heard as Rob plucked his light-bulb. Every couple of days there would be an execution. Rob, two of his cellmates and Shadow felt a charge, as if someone had put a live wire on their spines for just a few seconds, then it stopped just as suddenly. Shadow had since explained that a floor up the generator that supplied energy to the automatic locks on their cells and the machine that fed energy to the implants that suppressed their powers flickered for a few seconds whenever they fired up a machine known only as the U.A.  
  
Rob knocked on the bars next to his cell. No answer. He rang on them with his knuckles. Still no response.  
  
"Sonic is the fastest thing that ever lived..."  
  
"THAT'S A DAMN LIE!!!"  
  
Shadow peered into the dark cell next door with his nostrils flared and his quills sticking out. Breathing heavily he slammed his fists into the bars. Slowly, but surely he came to his senses.  
  
"What do you want," the hedgehog asked, obviously a little peeved. "It's 3 AM!"  
  
"Shh," Rob said. "Do you here that?"  
  
"No. What?"  
  
"Someone screaming or something."  
  
Shadow listened to the rustling and yelling in the hallway. "Yeah. Probably Ernest. He killed some big guy in the shower for reasons I won't go into."  
  
"They're gonna execute him...that gives me an idea."  
  
Shadow put his head into his hands and closed his eyes. "Oh no! You're not actually going to try that hair-brained scheme you were talking about yesterday?"  
  
"It beats sitting around here for a couple more years right? GUN is more liable to execute you before they let you walk away!"  
  
The hedgehog got a solemn look on his face as he finally acknowledged the truth. He sighed and ran his hand into his black and red quills and plucked one of the sharpest he had growing there. He then shoved the quill into the bars and said," The implant should be on your frontal lobe. Don't go any deeper than to puncture the device just as the lights dim, you should get your powers back."  
  
Rob shakily took the sharp spine and lined it up with his forehead. "God help me if the reboot function doesn't work. I'll be some kind of rampaging beast." He looks over toward his friend's cell. "Just promise that you'll kill me if I do, man."  
  
Shadow nods and says," I hope it never comes to that."  
  
Rob steadies his right hand, says a small prayer to a God two worlds away and plunges the spine through his skull. He can feel the sharp edge slice through the bone and almost poke his brain. The blood from the 1/4 inch wound pours into and stings his eye. Rob's hand begins to twitch and convulse, the first signs of trauma. His other eye begins to blur, almost becoming dark as the other eye goes red with the leaking of the hole in his skull. The world starts to swirl about him, the darkness is swallowing him whole. The light is even starting to go away. a little at a time. On. Off. On. Off.  
  
Wait, it's flickering.  
  
Rob stabs the spine in further and there's a crunch. He pulls the black spine from his head and wraps his shirt around his head to stop some of the bleeding. the implant is gone, yet the world still seems to be going dark.  
  
Oh God. I'm dying.  
  
Shadow continuously bangs on the bars in his cell. He can already see that his friend has gotten rid of his implant, but at a terrible cost. He can see that Rob is on his side breathing shallowly, hyperventilating. He'd seen this before, caused this before. Rob had bled too much, punctured too quickly or something else...many things that could have gone wrong. Shadow backed away from the all and ripped away his bunk. It was 9 inches of concrete between him and his dying friend, but to Shadow it might as well of been tissue paper.  
  
He backed up against the other wall just as the lights went out, yet it still didn't matter. The prison around him shook with explosions and the sound like thunder. Shadow folded his fists in front of him, and rolled into the wall. He felt grinding and a horrible pain as his Spin Dash created sparks against the wires in the wall, but it didn't matter. Shadow unrolled and back-flipped three feet away. Shadow concentrated all his energy, all his emotions; all of his hate, love, anger, anxiety, bravery, and held out his hand at what was left of the wall.  
  
A golden aura surrounded him as the spines on his back stood out and shot lightning toward the wall. The Chaos Spear technique from his military training. Under the assault of the electric needles the wall gave way in an explosion of heat and smoke. Shadow stepped through the hole expecting to find the friend he'd made in the few days he'd been there.  
  
"Rob!" Shadow called into the darkness." Are you in here? Are you okay?"  
  
"Activation Code: Rob Cross-Digivolve to..."  
  
The darkness gave way to a red light surrounding his human friend. As it passed over him a grid seemed to appear on his skin. All other color on his body ceased to exist as the red grid made his body a changing wire frame. A great flash momentarily blinded Shadow. When he regained his vision the red grid had gone, replaced with a neon glowing creature that seemed to have a sword for a right arm, black wings protruding from it's back, six twitching antennae, no mouth and cold violet eyes. The monster that Rob had become declared it's presence by finishing the activation code.  
  
"...DELMON!" 


	6. Chapter 5: ARs are all we need

Chapter 5  
  
Shadow backed himself through the hole, away from the strange monster his friend had become. The black creature walked forward in a slow, graceful pace, he leaned down towards the four-foot hedgehog and looked him in the eye. Each eyed the other coldly until Shadow cringed back and blinked, the monster started laughing hysterically.  
  
Shadow looked up at him and said," Ha-ha, very funny. Can we get out of here now?"  
  
In a proud, deep voice the creature replied, "After you, hedgehog."  
  
The hedgehog took a few steps to his left and smacked face-first into iron bars. Delmon leaned against the wall and began to laugh harder than he'd done before. The black hedgehog rubbed his aching nose and looked up at the monster.  
  
"Ahem, the bars," Shadow said.  
  
"Aw fine," Delmon said as he held up his left hand to the bars. "Magical Game; Unlock our prison and set me free."  
  
The bars seemed to melt and churn like butter until they gave way to an open passage.  
  
"Now let's go."  
  
They walked out into the hallway and looked down the almost endless underground complex. The other end of the wall and the stairs to the courtyard seemed to be miles away, not to mention the flaming debris and fallen beams from the upper levels of the prison. Shadow looked at the treacherous landscape and smirked.  
  
Shadow stretched out a bit and said," So, do you want to race to the courtyard?"  
  
"It looks like a Zone between here and there, mind as well get some exercise," Delmon said, spreading his large wings.  
  
Shadow didn't wait for a signal before he jumped off the floor. But instead of the usual 0-50 in 3 seconds acceleration, it was zero to the floor in one second. Shadow sat flat on his face next to Delmon.  
  
A pained expression and a sweat drop were on the monster's face as he said," Our personal effects like those shoes of yours and my pokeballs are in the bunker in the courtyard."  
  
"I knew that," Shadow said, finally getting up.  
  
==================================================  
  
Lt. Melvin Marshal of Scorpion troop sat inside his Hot Shot Walker, shaking with nervousness. This was his first time in the field outside of a surveillance operation, he wasn't used to dealing with the explosions and fighting going on around him. His palms leaked sweat onto the trigger handles on his walker controls. He still felt confident, mind you, but who wouldn't shielded by a three foot layer of exo-steel, servos supporting your movements, a Plexiglas view screen and two missile pods on either side of the ship? And that's not counting the high-density laser cannon in the suit's core. Oh yeah, he couldn't feel more confident, even though there were rampaging mutants, a few explosives, and one unknown enemy roaming the base/prison he couldn't feel better.  
  
KA-BOOM!!  
  
Alarms blazed and the walls around his walker burst into flames. Lt. Marshal armed his weapons and activated his sensors.  
  
He took an armored step forward into the smoke and flames and said over the intercom system," This is Lt. Marshal of Scorpion troop, put down your weapons or I'll be forced to fire."  
  
Someone small stepped out of the flames, the color of their skin almost melded in with the flames.  
  
"Lay down flat on the ground, now!"  
  
The person in the flames lifts their hand into the air, palm stretching outward toward the walker.  
  
"I said 'LAY DOWN'!!!"  
  
The flames around the individual on the ground become pale and white as their left hand glows brightly. Particles of light and energy form into orb- like shapes and fly straight at the Hot Shot. Each one impacts and makes a loud explosion against the hull. Just as Lt. Marshal's hand reaches the weapons controls to fire back his shields give out and an astounding explosion rocks the Security hall. Pieces of the walker (and it's pilot) are no more than flaming debris around whoever is on the ground.  
  
"Pathetic human annoyance," Hazard says as she leisurely skates into the security hall.  
  
===================================================  
  
Shadow flinches as an explosion rocks the bunker his and Delmon's things have been loaded into. The hedgehog slips on his shoes and picks up his other personal effect, the green chaos emerald. Just as he and many others have done years before and since, Shadow absorbs the emerald into his body. Suddenly he floats into the air with renewed energy from the emerald.  
  
Not far from him, Delmon searches through his own items. Technique machines, Hidden machines, a heavy ball, a few disks, a CD player, a palm pilot, and six pokeballs. Yes, everything was in it's place.  
  
He turned his head and asked Shadow," Are you ready to go, yet? Those explosions are getting closer."  
  
As if to illustrate his point, another rocked the bunker. The lights flickered for a few seconds and went completely dark. Both of them clambered toward the entrance and looked outside. It was utter chaos on the compound, men and women were scattering all around and a few walker robots shuffled toward the security hold.  
  
"If we're going to go, we'd better start moving soon," Shadow shouted above another explosion. "Any one of those walkers could pick us off if we aren't careful."  
  
The statement stuck for a few seconds until both the fugitives heard an earth shaking thud behind them.  
  
"So essentially what we're going to do is run like hell and attack whoever's in the way, right," Delmon asked Shadow.  
  
Whud!  
  
Without looking behind them, Shadow asked," Big Foot walker?"  
  
"As far as I know."  
  
"Two missile pods?"  
  
"Yup."  
  
"Possibly a laser weapon, correct?"  
  
"Uh-huh."  
  
"Bring it on," Shadow said as they both dashed in the opposite direction.  
  
==================================================  
  
Inside the security hold, teams of GUN soldiers rushed through the halls, looking for any sign of a break-in. Each cradled their weapon, always at the ready for any hostiles in the area. Suddenly the lights in the area went off and the sounds of screaming and gunfire filled the room. The lights flickered back to life soon enough and Hazard stood over a dozen dead or paralyzed enemies, holding a smoking sub-machine gun. She walked over the corpses toward a vault in the wall. She climbs up the wall and toward the computerized lock. The words 'palm Identification required' flashed on the screen. The orange lizard removed her left glove and pressed her palm to the screen. The computer screen flashes a light across her hand and then beeps.  
  
The screen is then filled with the words 'Authorized Personnel: Unessential Class'. Hazard scoffed at the meaning of the words 'unessential class', it usually meant that you were there as an observer or citizen. This computer has no idea how 'essential' I am to this world right now, Hazard thought as she set the gun down and started rummaging through the newly opened safe.  
  
It smells stale and dusty, as if it hadn't been open in years. On the small shelf a metal box sat with an old fashioned looking minicomputer. Hazard pocketed the computer in the military fatigues she'd smuggled from ARK and then bent down to one of the corpses. She slips off the backpack from the dead soldier and kicks him in his leaking head, his eye rolls across the floor and off a ledge.  
  
As she slides the box into her 'new' backpack, Hazard's thoughts continue to stew and her suppressed emotions begin to bubble forth from the back of her mind. The anger of seeing the living embodiment of the one's who killed her creator, her father whom she'd never known, keep those different than themselves as well as other 'furries' from the Great War away in small cells sickened her and made her want to hurt someone else.  
  
"Hey, you," Someone from down the hall yelled. "Get away from that safe and put your hands in the air!"  
  
Hazard turned her head and smirked. She then kicked up the gun at her feet into her hands and rushed at the four officers standing opposite to her. 


	7. Chapter 6: The masks we wear

Chapter 6  
  
Shadow slammed into yet another cockpit for the umpteenth time, destroying another walker. He landed on his feet a few yards away, just as it fell to the ground. Delmon initiated another of his patented Del-saber attacks to the legs of two other mechs.  
  
"We can't keep this up all night," Shadow yells as he bounds yet again off of another weapons port.  
  
"Speak for yourself hedgehog," Delmon said, looking up at two more flying opponents. "I'm having a blast!"  
  
Delmon pulled his hands together and yelled the activation code for Tyranomon's special attack. "Blaze Blaster!!!" He unclasped his talons and a massive funnel of flame erupted forth and fried the Flying Dogs.  
  
Shadow leaped off of buildings and onto Egg-mobile shaped craft in a whirling dervish of sparks and spines. From one to the next and finally on the third ship, Shadow round-housed the vessel into a wall, making an impressive explosion. He sped over a fallen wall and hid in the shadows of an open door of a small passageway in the side of the main prison. After hearing his pursuers speed by, Shadow let out a breath of relief and began to rest himself, confident in the fact that Delmon could handle himself for a few minutes alone. He looked around the area briefly before looking back outside for the source of a new explosion. In the rafters above someone eyed the hedgehog curiously before climbing down the wall toward him. Silently the gap between the two was closed to about three feet. Unfortunately, not silent enough.  
  
Shadow lashed out with his right arm and caught who was clinging to the wall by the neck and slammed them against the wall.  
  
"It looks like GUN has become an equal opportunity exploiter, eh?" Shadow said as gold energy crackled in his other palm, while holding the intruder with the other. "Do you have any last words before you die, female?"  
  
"Yes," The orange lizard said, grabbing the hedgehog by the arm. "Look out!"  
  
Both twisted away just as a hail of bullets impaled the area they were standing. Shadow rolled on top of the lizard and let off a Chaos Spear at their attacker, who fell to the ground, convulsing and shuddering. Still looking around for other possible assailants, Shadow hadn't noticed that the lizard wasn't trying to get out of a particularly awkward pose. She just marveled at the fact that they were touching, skin to scale and the hedgehog wasn't screaming about the pain like any other being that touched her flesh would.  
  
"W-who are you?" the lizard asked Shadow as he stood up and brushed himself off.  
  
"Shadow," he said nonchalantly as he offered her his hand to help her up.  
  
Hazard was just about to take it and then thought, What am I doing? Then slapped his hand away and got up on her own. "I don't need your help, rodent!"  
  
Shadow snorted. "Suit yourself."  
  
Hold on! Hazard thought, eyeing his bracelet. This is him, but how? All the signs pointed to the fact that he was dead. But how could that be when he's standing here with me, large as life, in the fur.nice fur.hold on, what the hell am I-  
  
"Ahem," Shadow said, breaking her from her thoughts. "I've told you my name, now you tell me yours and why you were staring at my arm."  
  
"Um, uh.I.I was just looking for you that's all!" Hazard lied as she put on her slyest smile. "I've come here to rescue you!"  
  
"Y-you have?"  
  
"Of course. We Ultimate Life-forms have to stick together right?"  
  
"Say what?" Shadow said taken aback by this strange lizard's last statement as she jumped over and hugged him tightly.  
  
Oh, I'm gonna be sick! "I'm Hazard!"  
  
The Professor created another Ultimate Life-form? Shadow thought as he tried to breathe and back away from the lizard hanging onto him. But how can that be? Eggman and I combed the database for more information on the U.L. project and there wasn't a single trace.  
  
"Eh-heh, that's nice and all," Shadow said nervously, as he pried her arms from around his neck. "But my friend is outside fighting for his life, we should go and help him."  
  
"You'd trust me just like that?"  
  
"We Ultimate Life-forms have to stick together, right?"  
  
Delmon panted heavily as he felt his strength waning and his mind reeling. He was winning the fight, but his headache and the corrupted files in his mind had to be healed. He could barely remember the Champion level access codes he was using, a minute ago he called up a Breath of Decay and it appeared as Party Time (or Shit-bomb, whatever ya like to call it.). Finally it was time to end the fight, Delmon sheathed his sword and folded his wings, his eyes became as red as blood. His left talon moved to his belt and to one of his pokéballs.  
  
Delmon reeled his arm back and threw the ball out in front of him," Go, Crimson!"  
  
The light instead of white, was red, as though the monster within had never been tamed. It's long sinuous form appeared and took shape, towering a full fifty feet high. It's scales were blood-red as it's master's eyes and thick, they shined in the spotlights and flames that danced around it's coils. It's mouth gaped open wide, revealing the glowing fangs and forked tongue. It lifted it's head and cried out in the night, a chilling shriek of a roar that cracked glass shields and made hearts momentarily stop. Oh, yes many shall know tonight what it's like to be feasted upon by the only Gyrados in history to be classified and fully ranked as a Dragon type pokémon. It licked it's chops hungrily at the gaping humans in their flimsy barricades and clunky machines. Nobody dared to move as Delmon floated up to the beast's head and sat upon it's crown.  
  
Delmon looked down at the entrée for his beloved monster and whispered to the great dragon," Dinnertime."  
  
The beast roared again and flung it's head straight into a barricade, swallowing the pathetic humans whole. It twisted it's head around and it's eyes became a glowing blue, the earth trembled and shook as geysers of water shot from the ground and flooded the area. A Hydro Pump attack. The walkers began to run in all directions, for the brave few that stayed behind and found that the monster's scales were bullet proof were torn out of their mechs and eaten. The more and more blood Crimson tasted, the more he wanted. He tore through the water like a shark and pulled walkers under by their legs.  
  
"Shadow, is that your friend?" Hazard said nervously.  
  
"I hope not," Shadow said.  
  
The pair had snuck back out of the security hold and made their way toward the fight to assist Delmon, only to find a huge monster devouring all of the humans in sight. They both hid behind a brick wall in the hope that neither side of the feast around them would find them. A roaring sound off in the distance was heard and both hedgehog and lizard looked up in horror.  
  
"It's huge," Hazard commented as she grabbed onto the hedgehog next to her.  
  
"It's a Grand Falcon," Shadow said as he saw the large craft pass overhead toward the monster. "Only Eagle troop has authorization to use them. Our friend is in serious trouble!"  
  
"Our?" Hazard said eyeing him.  
  
"If you're really with me, really came here to save me then you'll help me save him and his monster."  
  
Hazard glared at him with hatred in her red eyes and said," Fine. Let's do it!"  
  
The craft maneuvered in the air above the rampaging Gyrados and turned it's Photon cannons toward it. Delmon moved his hand skyward and snapped his claws. The monster's mouth became a cavern of light and gathering energy, it was charging a most powerful attack. The Photon cannon above had no need to charge and began to blast craters in the earth around the monster. Not far away from the first crater Shadow appeared in a flash of light, he'd had to Chaos Control in order to avoid the blast. He skated over the haphazard landscape and then accelerated to sonic speeds. He'd lost Maria by not being fast enough, he wasn't going to lose another friend today because he wanted to go easy on his own body. The hedgehog ignored his fatigue as he focused his energy on the emerald within his body and mind. A great green flash came from the soles of his Nitrium-lined sneakers and he flew into the air toward the ship in a golden Shadow-spin. His aura cut right through the shields and he went flying through the hull and out of the opposite end of the ship. But it wasn't done yet, Shadow's body disappeared in a flash of light and he appeared in front of the ship. Using his momentum from the last attack, Shadow cut through the ship again and again.  
  
Impressive, Hazard thought, while charging her energies through the Chaos digivice and the Chaos Emerald in her right talon. But I can do better.  
  
A plethora of lighted orbs surrounded Hazard as she concentrated her thoughts on directing the energy in each one. One by one the orbs exploded, and with each explosion a beam of energy shot toward the immense craft. Finally the light show ended and Hazard fell to her knees, all of her energy depleted. Her efforts weren't in vain though, the ship now sported only one Photon cannon, now that a few of their other weapons, not to mention the shield, were destroyed.  
  
Meanwhile inside the ship, the crew was targeting the Sea Monster down on the surface with more and more accuracy. The last shot was too close for comfort and made the beast shudder a little as it gathered the last bit of energy needed for it's attack. Delmon looked up at the ship and pointed his left talon at it.  
  
"Fire the HYPER BEAM!!" he yelled.  
  
At the same time the ship's crew had gotten their coordinates together and finally took a deadlock aim on Crimson. The ship shuddered as Shadow sliced through it again, this time he'd cut the plasma injectors for the cannon as well as the shields. The cannon would not respond, not even when one of the engineers manually pressed the firing mechanism. A great beam of light spewed from Crimson's mouth and rocked the vessel above. For a few seconds it diffused on the fleeing ship's hull and then it cut clean through into the sky. The ship keeled over on it's side in mid-air. While retreating the crew tried to magnetically polarize the hull so that the beam wouldn't do much damage, unfortunately the beam was too unstable and the ship exploded in a stream of electromagnetic energy.  
  
Delmon screamed in agony as his pokémon returned to it's pokéball on his master's belt, leaving him to fall fifty feet to the ground beside Hazard, depixelating slightly. Even as Shadow arrived Delmon was spouting out gibberish and shaking. Finally after a gut-wrenching scream, Delmon shrank into a three foot tall blue creature with the same violet highlights as before and a long tail. If Shadow hadn't seen the transformation he wouldn't have been able to recognize his friend.  
  
"Don't move hedgehog," someone yelled behind Shadow as he kneeled by his exhausted friends.  
  
There's only one way out of this ,Shadow thought as he focused his last ounce of strength.  
  
"CHAOS CONTROL!!!" Shadow yelled to the heavens as the familiar feeling of time stopping came over him and he and his allies were whisked away to one of the only places on (or rather above) Mobius where Shadow felt safe.Home.ARK. 


	8. Chapter 7: You thought I did this for fr...

Chapter 7  
  
Shadow awoke with a start, for the first time in perhaps a year he woke up with the sun shining in on him. He jumped up even faster when he saw where he was, in the main living quarters on ARK. The residential area where the scientists rested and also where nonessentials spent their time. He'd only been here on a few occasions, mostly to put a certain someone to sleep when they stayed up too late. The hedgehog jumped when the door opened and the shrunken Delmon and Hazard  
  
entered the room.  
  
"Sorry," Delmon apologized in a childish voice. "We didn't mean to wake you."  
  
"Don't worry about it," Shadow replied. "I'm just glad you two are okay, being the only two people I trust right now."  
  
"At least you saved me a trip and some energy," Hazard said. "Right now, Whelpmon and I've got something to show you."  
  
"Whelpmon?"  
  
"Delmon's lower evolved form. He'll be like this until his memory files have had a chance to repair." She grabbed the hedgehog from his bed. "Let's go already!"  
  
"Wait a sec! What's all this about?" Shadow said as he was practically dragged from the room.  
  
She dragged him from the room and into the long hallway to the elevator shaft. Whelpmon pressed the button without a word and the three of them waited. The elevator sounded with the usual ring and all three walked aboard. 'Fly in Freedom' played in the background as the elevator dropped down through the colony. Shadow noted that the place looked a bit torn up since he'd seen it last, perhaps the drop through the atmosphere melted a few ports. In any case, the elevator stopped on level 13.  
  
How foreboding, Shadow thought as they stepped out of the elevator.  
  
The place they'd stepped into was a dark area that reeked of chemicals and the sounds of machinery filled the air as well. Glass tubes lined the long walls and at the end of the room a large tank stood ready with it's own lights already activated.  
  
"What's all this about, Hazard," Shadow asked as he walked ahead a little, trying to familiarize himself with his surroundings.  
  
Hazard backed up behind Whelpmon and said," First you should know that I didn't rescue you out of the kindness of my own heart, I need your help."  
  
"For what? If it's world domination, forget it! I'm not bothering with 'The Cannon' or any other type of weapon on this colony."  
  
"It happens to concern your and my creator, hedgehog. Not some insipid scheme of the Professor's far-flung grandson."  
  
"He was my benefactor, not my creator. I may not have my full memory back yet, but I know that much. He gave me my powers, bu- "  
  
"But nothing," the lizard interrupted. "You owe the old man and me that much to help me out." Shadow looked around the room contemptuously. "I'm listening..."  
  
Hazard hopped up to a computer console and turned on one of the screens on the wall.  
  
"If you'd paid attention at all during Chaos Controls, you'd see lights streaking in several different directions. Each of these directions is due to a sort of ionic bond between each Emerald, that is why, when brought together, the Chaos Emeralds act as one power. Other objects of power are the same way. Chaos Emeralds, Power Stones, Master Emeralds, Precious Stones, Chaos Rings, and even the Time Stones themselves act in the same fashion."  
  
Shadow snorted. "And what has this got to do with me or you?"  
  
"You were created with data from Project: Shadow, which means you were completed. All of your systems work correctly and so do all of your bodily functions. You are also impervious to disease and most injury. I however have to rely on a life- support system to help me get by. It breathes for me, it pumps my blood, it digests my food, it runs my nervous system, it coordinates my thoughts, it heals me, and it even regulates my hormones. But I can't LIVE for more than a day without it or some Chaos energy to keep me going. That is where each of you come in. I need the data from Shadow's left wrist bracelet and Whelpmon's ability to transport from the digital world mentioned in the databanks to use the objects of power and complete myself."  
  
"Hold on a second," Shadow said. "We have to collect all seven of the Chaos Emeralds as well as the other objects of power you mentioned from Mobius? That's crazy!"  
  
"We don't need all seven, jackass. Weren't you paying attention? The bonds in the objects makes it possible for us to harness the power of seven of each so that it will effect changes in my body in a more predictable way."  
  
"Hmm," the little digimon sitting next to Shadow said. "She wants me to effect a digivolving program for her, then."  
  
Hazard and Shadow both sweat-dropped (yes, I am going to do anime effects in here every now and then). Both said simultaneously "What is digivolving?"  
  
"Argh!"  
  
After a short explanation and a few minutes to write the program up for a highest grade evolution, Hazard was lowered into the large glass tube without the life- support device. Shadow manned the command console while Whelpmon made sure that the program didn't erode in the middle of the process. Hazard gave a small thumbs-up and Shadow replied in kind, the signal to begin. The red Chaos Emerald was strapped to a power siphon and the green in Shadow's hand, he didn't want it siphoning off his own energy. The screen Whelpmon stood in front of went blank for a second before binary code began stream across a black background. Hazard's orange skin became a solid black lined with green grid. The siphon activated and the red emerald began to glow brightly, six streaks of multicolored energy streamed from the stone. A green beam towards the emerald in Shadow's hand and five others that lanced out toward Mobius, through the walls of the lab.  
  
"Evolution at 10 % and rising," Whelpmon said in a monotone computer generated voice. Shadow looked at each of the readouts on the computer. Pulse, brainwaves, hormone production, and respiration were the same as they were when she entered the tube, below normal. Shadow began to wonder whether this 'digivolving' process would ever work. Hazard began to writhe in the tank as she felt the transformation begin on her skin and then work it's way down to her bones. A tingling electric sensation began to fill her body and then spread out beyond, it was like powering up with the Chaos Emerald to the seventh power. Outside the tank, the grid became a golden light and Hazard's body began to contort a little from it's original form. Shadow watched in awe as each of the seven beams became a pulsing white light until the light show suddenly stopped. An unearthly scream came from the tube and it shattered, pieces of glass showering the room.  
  
Shadow hid behind the console with his dead Chaos Emerald in hand, waiting out the storm. Whelpmon stood at his station, seemingly unaffected by the shards of cutting glass.  
  
"Evolution at 70% and rising..."  
  
The grid disappeared in a flash of light and a slight burst wracked the lab as well as the rest of the colony. The concussion was even felt on Mobius by anyone in the Western hemisphere. Another lower scream pierced the lab as Hazard fell facedown on the floor, covered in the suspension fluid the tube had been filled with. For the next couple of seconds there wasn't a sound in the lab, besides a small beeping sound coming from Shadow's console. Slowly, the black hedgehog lifted himself up and checked the readouts.  
  
"Evolution is 100% complete," Whelpmon said as the screen beside him shutdown. "Was it successful, Shadow?"  
  
Shadow checked his screen again and replied," According to this a few of her systems were reactivated, for loss of a better term. Pulse is normal, which means the circulatory system works. Hormone production is also at normal, which means emotional responses should be okay...or as okay as most females are, anyway in that area. And the respiratory systems are working fine, she can breathe on her own." He looked up from his console. "But what happened to the rest of her systems?"  
  
A weak whimper came from the collapsed orange heap lying in a pool of suspension fluid. "We need the...rest of the objects to...complete my body and mind."  
  
Whelpmon lifted the weak lizard from the tube and hefted her onto his shoulders. There was a look of triumph on that scaled face as the digimon practically dragged her from the room. Shadow didn't even look behind him as they boarded the elevator.  
  
Whelpmon looked behind him and asked," Aren't you coming with us?"  
  
"No," Shadow said, walking to an exit on the other side of the lab. "I'll take the long way back upstairs."  
  
The digimon had no true mouth showing behind the cowl over his reptilian face, but he seemed to frown with his eyes when the doors closed without him. Inside his mind, the repair sequence continued and would do so for the next week or so. The battle with whoever it was that sent Delmon here had damaged a good deal of data. Attack codes, memory data, names, faces, loves, hates; it was all a swirl of information for the Rookie that he couldn't fully understand. The life he'd had before coming to this world was no more than a few flashes of a movie reel, or a thought or two. Each time he looked at Shadow the name 'Sonic' would creep into his thoughts or whenever he looked at Hazard the word 'thief' would seem to pop up, but she'd stolen nothing from him. It was getting increasingly confusing to perceive the world here without someone to explain things or for him to do so for others. Perhaps Hazard would help me out like she did when Shadow transported us here, he thought as the elevator doors opened. And then I can help her sort out this business with the humans she kept talking about. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------- "Waddaya mean the engine just stopped working, Tails?"  
  
Sonic and his own group had just gone through their own little drama. The Cyclone's engine stopped functioning at three miles up and they'd plummeted for 2 miles down before power was reestablished. Of course by then Tails had put down the landing gear and set the jet down on solid ground. Bunnie was currently busy 'cascading' in the bushes while everyone else tried to get their heads straight. Sally stood by the craft analyzing it with Nicole while Sonic and Tails took the more 'manual' approach to the situation.  
  
Tails pressed his hand against one of the connector cables to check if it was loose and said," I just don't get it, I checked the entire power matrix before we left Knothole and everything seemed fine."  
  
"Maybe there's somethin' up with the Chaos Emerald," Sonic pointed out while eyeing the blue gem locked inside the machine's core. "We have been flying for ten hours straight. Maybe it just stopped working for ya."  
  
"Or maybe it's a fake," Sally said, sarcastically.  
  
"Ha-ha, Sal. Everything I told you was true, why can't you just take my word for it?"  
  
"Because it sounds like a pathetic movie, Sonic. You can't expect me to believe such an outrageous tale like that."  
  
"Sonic is telling the truth, Aunt Sally," Tails said as he shut the access panel. "It all happened and when we get to the GUN base a few miles away we'll have proof. Any one of those soldiers will tell you it really happened. Besides, a fake emerald I made would have made a machine explode."  
  
"Tails, don't start that up, too. The emerald in the jet is real, it's just a bit drained. Maybe..." Sally seemed to choke on the words. "...Sonic was...um..."  
  
"C'mon, say it Sal," Sonic said cupping his hand over his ear. "The words everyone want to hear."  
  
"...Maybe Sonic was right."  
  
"Yes!" The blue hedgehog pumped his fist in the air. "Please tell me someone recorded that!"  
  
Tails hopped into the Cyclone and restarted the engines, he then hit the transformation switch and began to run a GPS signal sweep. According to the readout from the screen, the base was supposedly a few miles to the south. Unfortunately that wasn't what the freedom fighters found when they climbed through the hills. The base had been leveled. Buildings lay crumpled and burned. Mechs and pieces of them were strewn about here and there as if something had torn them apart. A few vans and trucks were parked around the ruins of what looked to be the main complex.  
  
Sonic and crew walked steadily toward the soldiers, each wondering what had happened.  
  
"You there," One of the larger soldiers yelled at them. "You didn't happen to see anything suspicious around here have you?"  
  
"Like what?" Sonic asked. "I don't know what you would think as odd."  
  
"Huge red monsters slithering around the ground, making floods. Our reports showed that two unidentified mobians led a revolt on the prison in the base. They also said something about a strange looking monster calling an even bigger one."  
  
The words 'strange looking monster' took a moment to click in Sonic's head, then he thought of the business with the Hazard creature and asked," Did the weird monster come out of a ball?" "The reports don't say." The soldier shrugged. "It was mostly screaming and explosions from the warship on patrol in this area."  
  
"You mean that?" Sally asked, pointing at the mountain of flaming slag a few hundred feet away.  
  
"That's what's left of it after...whatever this supposed monster is got through with it."  
  
Tails tapped on Sonic's shoulder. "Sonic, I saw one of those things on Prison Island, well when it was intact anyway. With the thing being stolen I'm beginning to think that he's involved."  
  
"I'll keep that in mind," Sonic whispered and then turned back to the soldier. "Listen, my friends and I need to find out something about the space colony ARK. I was wondering if maybe- -"  
  
"No can do, sir. All information regarding the ARK has been classified."  
  
"What about the Ultimate Life-form? Is there anything we can dig up on that?"  
  
"All information regarding military weapon projects has been banned to the public by GUN military censors." The soldier turned to walk away. "Now if you impede my investigation into this attack any further I will be forced to arrest you."  
  
"He was friendly," Bunnie said. "Now what do we do, ya'll? The base is as good as gone and so is any chance of sugah-hog getting his gizmo back."  
  
Tails looked up from his screen and thought about how Eggman got up to ARK and back. "Sonic, what about the transporters Eggman used to use to get up there? Couldn't we use them?"  
  
Sally let out an exasperated sigh. "Tails, if this ARK does exist and isn't some stupid military cover-up, where would we find a transporter? It's not like Robotnik just leaves his old bases unoccupied and we could saunter in and use the equipment."  
  
"Maybe we could..." Sonic interrupted. "Tails, how far are we from the Mystic Ruins?"  
  
"What?" Sally said.  
  
"Robotnik's old 'Final Egg' base is still there, Sal. All we have to do is find out if he left any transporters intact when he abandoned it."  
  
"Assuming there's anything left after the big fight you had with him," Tails added.  
  
"Let's get going. The faster we get there, the faster we find out."  
  
Tails turned the Cyclone back into a jet and took off with Sonic following on the ground. Just as they left the soldiers had finished uncovering the security tapes from the holding vaults. While each of the tapes was being reviewed APBs were put out on the escapees from the prison and special orders were given to find three particular people from the tape. A black and neon being highlighted against an exploding mech, a deadly orange lizard in GUN guerilla garb (try sayin' that three times fast ^-^), and the worst of all: a black and red hedgehog with jet skates. Project Shadow himself was back on the loose... 


	9. Chapter 8 through 13

Disclaimer: The characters that ain't mine, ain't mine. What is mine is the story and the characters that I've made. So now you STILL can't sue me.  
  
Chapter 8  
  
A hideous shriek echoed through the hall of ARK's living quarters. Whelpmon jumped twice his own height and hurried down the corridor where the sound had apparently come from. He braced himself for the worst as he opened the door. There sitting in a chair in front of a mirror was Hazard, but not quite the same one he'd set down in the room. He inched his way over to her and looked at the mirror to see her face. A shocked and disgusted expression covered her face.  
  
"What happened," the digimon asked timidly. He tried not to startle her, knowing that any newly evolved creature is dangerous.  
  
"I-I-I'm n-not the same," Hazard sputtered. "Those emeralds did something horrible to me. It's unthinkable! I-it's disgusting!"  
  
Shadow sped into the room with a Sonic Boom echoing through the hallway. He'd heard the scream two decks down. "What happened? Are we under attack? Are you two alright?"  
  
"No, I'll never be alright again! Look at what the stupid chaos emeralds did to me!"  
  
Shadow inspected the disturbed lizard carefully and said," It's just hair, Hazard. I have a whole mess of it."  
  
Indeed the lizard had grown a head of blond hair that made her look somewhat like a middle-aged Fabio, hair that came about past her shoulder with a receding hairline. The scales on her face and hands had turned yellow and her eyes were pink instead of red.  
  
"I look albino," She screeched, then she turned and started shaking the short digimon standing next to her. "This is all your fault, monster! You let the program corrupt, didn't you?"  
  
Shadow separated them before Hazard could suffocate the black digimon. "Wait a minute. How do we know this isn't supposed to happen, Hazard?"  
  
The hedgehog's last statement struck home and she stopped reaching for Whelpmon. The stoic, shocked look was still plastered to her face, though. She didn't feel any different that an hour before, but the warm itchy feeling on the back of her skull was becoming annoying when you got used to bald scales.  
  
"Oh well, I guess I can adapt," Hazard pouted. "I'll do something about it until the next evolution. Which we'll have to use a Super Emerald for."  
  
"I'll begin the research," Whelpmon said as he ran off to the observation deck.  
  
"Do you need anything?" Shadow said as he turned to leave as well.  
  
"If I did, I'd get it myself," Hazard snapped. "Now go!"  
  
The doors shut behind him as he left with a swish. Shadow was about to go along with his normal exercises when he heard a quiet 'psst' from around the corner. The hedgehog walked back down the hallways toward a few of the more darkened rooms. As he rounded the bend Whelpmon's eyes darted from behind something else in whatever room he'd wandered into.  
  
"Listen," the little digimon whispered. "Something here isn't right."  
  
"Everything here isn't right Del- I mean, Whelpmon," Shadow exclaimed. "You've got to narrow it down a bit. And besides, why are we hiding in a darkened room whispering?"  
  
"What I mean is how did Prof. Gerald know about the technical applications of digivolving on beings outside of the digital world?"  
  
"I remember you once telling me about that place a few times before and how people from your 'real' world knew about it. What's so strange about a scientist from our dimension knowing about it?"  
  
"Because an hour ago I tried to enter the digital world from here and guess what, there was nothing there."  
  
Shadow raised his eyebrow a bit. "You mean someone destroyed the digital world here in Mobius' computers?"  
  
"No! There is no digital world here. The ramifications to create it can't be met with the computer systems you're using here. I couldn't have used that program here if it didn't exist!"  
  
"Now I have no idea what you mean. We just evolved Hazard a few hours ago did-"  
  
Whelpmon exploded." No, no, no! We didn't evolve her, we just altered her. Whoever invented this process of modification wanted us to use that specific lab with this specific information with those specific stones."  
  
"How did you find this out?"  
  
"It was in some sort of diary or something Hazard left on one of the screens on the observation deck. I tried prying into it deeper but it wouldn't let me. Someone had encoded it and I think that someone is Gerald himself."  
  
"Someone here is playing around with us," Shadow said as he turned around to leave.  
  
"Where are you going?"  
  
Shadow's body began to glow and spark with green light. "Back to Mobius. I want to play this out, but to do that we'll need a Super Emerald." The light became to intense for Whelpmon to look at any longer. "You and Hazard should follow at the soonest convenience..." Then he was gone...  
  
* * * * *  
  
Sonic looked out at the green valley happily as his friends' cart finally made it's way toward the stop. Being impatient as he was, Sonic jumped out and ran ahead of it. Sally, Bunnie, and Tails jumped out of the cart and looked out at the view along with the hedgehog. The Mystic Ruins Jungle was a sight to behold. The dense green was dotted here and there with stone walls and arches, the only reminder of any kind of civilization. A clear creek ran through the valley and dropped off to the river below a sheer drop that had been caused when the Floating Island crashed near the coast. It was pushed up thanks to the shockwave the falling landmass had created. In the center of the whole thing was the raised stone spire that represented the lost echidna ruins that the jungle housed. Beneath that temple lied traps and endless corridors that, with the exception of Sonic and Knuckles, nobody had seen for centuries.  
  
"So where is this base supposed to be, Sonic," Tails asked as he started down the ladder.  
  
"About a few minutes walk from the temple," Sonic said. "I hope the tram is still working, though. It'd take forever for all of us to get down the ridge and into the base."  
  
The jungle was unusually quiet that day. No bird calls, no crickets, nothing except the sound of running water and the swaying of the trees in the wind. Sonic became a bit nervous as they reached the tram. Over the past year or so it had become rusty and vines had crawled all over the entrance. With some help from Sally's computer Nicole they ordered the doors to open and everyone piled in...That's when hell broke loose.  
  
The tram roared down it's shaft at blazing speed as soon as the doors had closed. Everyone was thrown against the wall as the tram rocketed forward through the metal tunnel. Sonic started to say something when the tram suddenly jerked to a stop, throwing it's passengers to the floor and Sonic into unconsciousness.  
  
"Sonic..."  
  
'Huh?'  
  
"Sonic are you alright?" Sonic groaned as he got up. "Ugh, did anybody get the number of that tank?"  
  
"Apparently the base is abandoned," Sally said looking around the dilapidated lab. "It sure is one of Eggman's setups. But how could he have built a place like this or his Egg Carrier without Station Square knowing about it?"  
  
Indeed, upon looking into the next set of corridors and pits, they seemed to go on forever downward and just curve off indicating that there was much more of the structure below ground. The rank smell of motor oil and smog was still in the air. Factories and generators below were possibly still active and supplying power. But what was here worth supplying it to if all the robots had left?  
  
"I don't know but I'll try to find out," Sonic said. "Tails you and the others look around this level and try to find a map or something. This place is practically a maze, so I don't want any of you following me and getting lost."  
  
"Good luck, Sugah-hog," Bunnie said.  
  
Sonic zoomed down the broken down corridor that led into the industrial core of the complex. Known mostly to him as the Final Egg Zone. His first time there was fraught with dangers from the advanced robots Robotnik had built around that time, but without such annoyances Sonic glided through the semi-dark base unmolested and terribly bored.  
  
Shadow materialized just outside of the launch bay where the Egg Carrier had launched a few years prior. The huge field before him was lined with scorch marks from the ship's engines. Looking up he could see almost fifty stories worth of scaffolding and clamps hanging onto the ceiling. It was quiet, way too quiet.  
  
"You know you can show yourself Hazard," Shadow chided as he walked toward the base's core.  
  
As if out of thin air Hazard appeared, walking next to her predecessor with her arms folded above her head. It appeared the digivolving process had more than given her the ability to live without her life support system for days on end, it had also given her a chameleon's special ability as well. The ability to blend in with one's surroundings and become 'invisible'.  
  
"How'd you know I was there," she asked.  
  
"You used the Chaos Emerald to get down here, I could feel it with the one I have. As far as I was concerned you stood out like a floodlight in this gloom."  
  
"Impressive. Now if we could drop the small talk; where's the Super Emerald we're supposed to be looking for?"  
  
Shadow stopped for a second and concentrated his thoughts through the Chaos Emerald within him. He felt a Vibration nearby, a feeling as well as a sound. It was getting a bit more defined as he moved closer to the exit from the launch bay. He picked up the pace and skated off. The lizard took off behind him as he reached the door and zipped off to the right. Hazard struggled to keep up with him as he rapidly streaked through the base's mangled remains toward the emanation that seemed to be calling out to him more and more as he got closer. After a few dizzying turns Hazard screeched to a halt just before a seemingly endless fall. She looked around the shaft to see if her comrade had in fact fallen in. To her utter contempt she saw the black hedgehog grinding on the steam pipes along the walls down in a wide spiral.  
  
Okay...he must be insane, Hazard though as she climbed onto the wall with her claws and proceeded to slowly crawl down. What the hell am I doing? Am I afraid of a little fall I could easily avoid with my Scorchers? Especially when he's already in the lead to that Emerald instead of me. I should be the one whipping down this chasm instead of hugging close to the wall like some child! I should—Wait, the first to go in is the first to die, Hazard. He'll get the Emerald for you...and if not I'm sure Whelpmon will be more than happy to accommodate his new 'tamer'. Hehehe!  
  
With that thought Hazard took a peek beneath her right glove to look at the Dark digivice that had fallen off of Whelpmon. More than happy...  
  
At the present time Shadow had leapt off of the pipe and onto a circular platform. It was too dark to make out anything but outlines in the dark. All the hedgehog saw was the back of some sort of pipe or shaft with a wire or cord on top. Shadow's immediate assumption was that it was an elevator. He zipped around the platform to the other side. Suddenly...'Whumph'.  
  
"What in the-"Someone yelled in the dark as Shadow ran into him and knocked them both over the edge.  
  
Shadow didn't scream or yell as they began to fall, he just reacted on an old habit from his training. Whenever you're about to fall to your death, don't panic; look at the possibilities. Shadow twisted his body sharply to the right and hooked the edge of the platform with his foot while still holding onto whoever he'd managed to knock over. He swung himself up to the platform again and pulled the guy up alongside him.  
  
"Whew, sorry about that," Shadow apologized. "It was dark in here and I couldn't see you. Hold on, what are you doing down here anyway?"  
  
The dark stranger couldn't speak. His face was mostly covered in shadows, but it didn't do much to hide his hanging jaw and look of fright.  
  
Shadow flicked his hand in front of the stranger's face. "Hello, anyone home? You look as if you've seen a ghost."  
  
"Because that's exactly what you are," the stranger said. "You can't be real, there's no way anybody could survive something like that. No freakin' way."  
  
The stranger slung his pack over his shoulder and pulled out a circular object that glowed golden light. It revealed one hedgehog to the other. And at the same time the accusation ran throughout the shaft.  
  
"SONIC?!"  
  
"SHADOW?!"  
  
Hazard mumbled idly as she wandered through the empty core of the base. The lights were on, the debris was cleared away, and the power core was nearby, but none of that mattered to her. All that did matter to the orange and yellow lizard is what had happened in the shaft. After a few stories of climbing down Hazard had felt something itching at the back of her mind. A new and strange feeling to her, so she indulged it...big mistake. I remember something I read on Darwin dictated in the history of evolution, any and all aspects of a creature can be completely altered to suit that creature's environment. Hers didn't happen to include a huge chasm beneath her. That strange feeling eating away at her contempt was...it's almost too embarrassing to say; fear. She sat on that wall for the next few minutes screaming her lungs out until she used common sense and Chaos Controlled closer to the core. Ashamed of her behavior, Hazard decided to keep this little episode a secret.  
  
The farther in she walked the louder the machinery behind the walls got and the more extensive the repairs. Wiring was shielded, pipes were reinforced, and doors were locked. Someone was definitely here. Hazard strolled along carefully through the corridor looking mostly at the floor. A thick cable or wire ran along the base of the wall and every now and then it would connect to an extension cord or a connecting cable. Finally the trek ended beside a door where the wire ended; protruding from a wall. The lizard's hand went to her blaster as she forced open the door. With some effort and a loud creaking sound it opened wide enough for Hazard to slip through.  
  
Inside, it was dim and dark in the corners. There was almost no light except from the sparse light bulbs situated in the ceiling and the object of her desires. It's bottom half was snaked around by cables and electrodes and its top was sparking, letting off beams of light. But all in all it was impossible to mistake for anything else. It was the white Super Emerald. As the awe and amazement wore off Hazard jumped up onto the platform and began disconnecting it from the filters and siphons, all the while she kept on thinking one all consuming mantra.  
  
"It's too easy, It's too easy, It's too easy..."  
  
And from the flashing camera connected to the ceiling in one of the dark corners of the room I'd have to say she was right.  
  
"What the heck is goin' on around here," Sonic shouted. "Everyone thought you were dead! I thought you were dead, man. And here you are holed up in one of the Eggman's old setups."  
  
"Who said I was 'holed up' anywhere, Sonic," the black hedgehog said. "I was in prison for a few months. That's all. I could have broken out at any time."  
  
"Since you're standin' here yappin' with me, I guess you just decided to waltz on outta there?"  
  
"More or less," Shadow lied. "Besides what are you doing here? Hoping to find something valuable in this dump? As you can see the whole place has been gutted by now."  
  
"As far as we know anyway. Something down at the bottom of this place is supplying power and I aim to find out what."  
  
Shadow barked a cruel laugh. "Could you be slower in any other way, blue hedgehog? It's a Super Emerald. And my partner and I are down here to collect it."  
  
"Your partner? A Super?" "Um, why yes. Who would be stupid enough to come to a place like this alone and go...wandering." Shadow looked down into the dark chasm beneath him. "I have to go."  
  
"Say what? But you just got here, and what'll I tell the others when I get back? I mean some people aren't taking me seriously about the whole other big-ass adventure we had-" Suddenly Sonic's communicator chimed the emergency signal. "Damn...I guess we gotta go our separate ways again, huh black bastard?"  
  
"You can tell Rouge that I expect to see her soon," Shadow said as he leaped off the edge of the platform. "Good luck, blue blur!"  
  
"You too, man!" Sonic said as he took off toward his friends. "You too."  
  
'Okay, black wire is connected to the green circuit. The green circuit is connected to the blue cable. The blue cable is connected to the gray siphon. The gray siphon is powered by the black battery that's charged by the siphon itself. Now, the only thing I have to worry about is how to yank out the emerald without setting off a chain reaction and bringing the whole base down on my head?'  
  
Hazard sat there in front of the jumble of metal and crystal for a second before kicking over the siphon and tearing out the Emerald.  
  
'Easy enough...'  
  
Cha-click!  
  
"I suggest you replace that emerald," a monotone voice said while someone or something snatched the blaster from her other hand.  
  
Hazard put the gem on the console in front of her. "Just when ya think you can just do your job, somebody has to make it hard on themselves." The lizard disappears and runs to the other side of the room.  
  
BOOM!  
  
A smoking hole appears in the floor ahead of her as the assailant stomps heavily toward the door, never taking the gun barrel away from her. Hazard stops dead in her tracks and becomes visible again.  
  
"Now don't move, don't say anything, and don't do anything. Lest I get a bit 'trigger happy'."  
  
Shadow dashes in the room and up to the siphon console. He grabs the emerald and looks around the room for a second before..."Psst!"  
  
"Huh?" Shadow murmurs on his way out the door. "Oh there you are, I thought you got lost. Why do you have your hands above your head?"  
  
Hazard dips her head to the right twice and mumbles something. "What? I can't hear you. Speak up!"  
  
Hazard jerks her head harder and whines a little louder.  
  
"'Bees hanging rye the whore'? Look, I don't have time to play around right now Hazard," Shadow said as he absorbed the Super into his body, enticing even more frantic mumbling from his partner. "Our mission here is accomplished, so let's get out of here before- - ulp!"  
  
Before you know it Shadow is looking down a rather large caliber plasma blaster. The arm it is connected to shines dully in the dim light since it's made of metal. The body is portly and egg-shaped, like a certain mad scientist, with red, white, and black designs covering it. The eyes are a glowing gold covered by an armored grate. It's legs were no more than thick poles with oblong orbs for joints and red plates for feet.  
  
"Hello Sonic," the robot with the almost emotionless voice said. "I hope you remembered me. I can't seem to delete you from my programming, therefore I can't forget the 'priority hedgehog'."  
  
"I-"Shadow began as he was cut off again.  
  
"For years I have been planning, hedgehog! Never knowing if things would turn out the way I wanted. I've already exacted my revenge on the first Robotnik by helping his nephew tamper with the UA device. Now, it seems, I have the chance to follow up on you. Well, what have you and this harlot in the corner to say for yourselves? Any last words?"  
  
"First of all," an enraged Shadow began. "I am not Sonic! And second: Chaos Control!"  
  
The room lost all color as time stopped. Not just in the room, but everywhere on Mobius. It seemed that the Supers also had the awesome power of their cousins the seven Chaos, only amplified. Shadow wasted no time as he disarmed the robot of both it's rifle and Hazard's own fire-arm and then kicked both of it's knees.  
  
Time started again, only the scene had shifted. Hazard and Shadow held the weapons this time and the robot was on it's knees, helpless.  
  
"Okay, before we scrap you I wanna know what robot was crafty enough to sneak up on me," Hazard said as she removed the safety from her blaster. "And be quick about it, please. WE have places to go, things to see, and people to do."  
  
Shadow sweatdropped as he corrected her.  
  
"I am designated Death Egg series pilot mech EGRBO-01," the robot rattled off. "Also known from my badnik designation as Egg-Robo."  
  
"Nice," Shadow said as he took aim.  
  
"Wait!"  
  
"Why should I? You'd have no reason to wait for us if you had the guns." "Granted, rodent. But I have an offer on the table that should quell this little misunderstanding."  
  
Hazard grabbed the barrel of Shadow's blaster and said," Go on..."  
  
"If you let me go on functioning I can promise you something incredible and forgotten by all of Mobius. Nobody has any idea about this but me and three others who aren't interested anymore. For I have ascertained the course of Little Planet and furthermore the exact location of the fabled Time Stones."  
  
Hazard hung limp for a second and lowered her gun a few inches away from the robot's head.  
  
"I see I have piqued the lady's interest. So you still want to shoot me, hedgehog?"  
  
Shadow smirked and showed his canines. "Yes. But that's not up to me right now. It's up to her..."  
  
Phoom!  
  
The ground shook as another missile hit the wall near where Bunnie was standing. It was getting harder and harder to keep shielded from the fire it made on the floor. Her cyborg limbs were already beginning to overheat.  
  
"Hey Sal-gal," Bunnie called over her shoulder. "You almost done with that thang? It's getttin' a might too hot for me with all this napalm flyin' about!"  
  
Bunnie fired back with the laser in her left arm. It was a direct hit on one of the larger badniks, but another two took it's place and started firing again. Bunnie ducked back around the wall just as the missiles hit.  
  
"Sally we're outgunned here," Tails shouted above another explosion. He wished he'd had the foresight to bring his beloved Cyclone with them. "Bunnie can't hold those Ball-hogs off forever."  
  
The aforementioned badnik was no more than a four foot high round metal teddy bear, but what they didn't have in size they made up for in annoyance and persistence. Each one of them was a moving munitions factory that churned out explosive balls and missiles. Sonic had mentioned seeing them in Robotropolis a few times, but he'd said that they were easy to destroy...if you were faster than lightning.  
  
"We aren't leaving Sonic," Sally said as she punched in a few keys on Nichole. The walls on either side of the badniks started closing in as another of the Doctor's twisted traps was activated. It crushed the badniks into scrap and then pulled away after a few moments of creaking and clunking metal. The rectangle of crushed badniks that fell on it's side with a loud clang was comical, but the moment was short lived as the stomping of another squad was heard in the hallway beyond.  
  
"I don't know what you're doing, but we've got to get outta here," Tails said as he twisted his twin appendages and ran off. Bunnie got up and grabbed Sally by the waist, hoisting her over her shoulder. "Look Sally. Sonic can take care of himself for a while. He lived through it when this place collapsed down on him the first time. He can make it out by himself this time too." With the princess kicking and crying the whole trip, Bunnie ran all the way outside into the surrounding jungle.  
  
Tails was splayed out on the ground with his fur somewhat singed and smoke pouring off him. Bunnie tensed up as she saw the black creature standing over him with a steaming palm and some kind of green flashing coming from his other clenched hand.  
  
Bunnie screamed and jumped away as a blast of fire flew from the creature's hand.  
  
She dropped Sally to the ground and flew back into the air yelling," Sally get outta here now!"  
  
The squirrel obeyed and took to the forest even as Bunnie was blasted out of the sky. Sally ran in zigzags as thorns and bushes scraped at her. Without any weapons or particular talents to save her, Sally was feeling defenseless.  
  
Sonic, where are you?  
  
With her muscles burning and her lungs winded, Sally stopped for a rest against a tree. The forest was quiet all around. None of the amazing or disturbing noises they had heard earlier upon entering the jungle were to be heard. That was creepy in itself. She took out Nichole and flipped open the top. In a few keystrokes Sally could see a mini-map of the area, as well as the thermal readings all around. There was almost nothing warm for the next few metrons. This did help to alleviate some of her fears...  
  
"Twin Sickle!"  
  
Two glowing blades shot from the direction she had run from and cut away the top half of the tree she was standing under. Sally screamed and ran forward again, except this time she heard something else running behind her; snapping the twigs and sticks underfoot. Sally stopped and leaped into a tree overhead. One last ditch effort... The black creature came to a stop under the tree and looked in every direction. Sally gasped a bit before he looked upward into the branches where she was hiding. It must've not seen her because it yelled an animalistic cry and screamed," Nova Blast!"  
  
A huge blast of fire erupted from it's hand and engulfed the forest ahead of it. Sally cringed back a little before she noticed it had missed. With a small gulp and some determination Sally leaped off of the branch and onto the creature's shoulders. As she rolled off she crossed her ankles and slung it's head into a tree. She stood up and brushed herself off a bit as she looked down at it. It didn't seem so menacing now that she thought about it. It's chest was armored and glowing with arcane symbols. It had a long tail protruding from it's spine with a sharp tip at the end. It's face was scaled and a dark violet instead of jet black like the rest of it's body. Sally was about to run back to the Final Egg base when a searing pain shot up her leg. The creature's needle tail had whipped up off the forest floor and jabbed her thigh. It was shallow, but that was enough. Slowly but surely a feeling of numbness grew throughout her body, finally resulting in losing her balance and seizing up.  
  
It lifted some sort of device to it's ear and said, despite the presence of a mouth," I have neutralized the our competition, Hazard...Yes I have one with me now...Understood."  
  
Suddenly as Sally began to lose consciousness, the fiend picked her up. As he did so she dropped Nicole, then the world went black.  
  
Chapter 9  
  
Sonic arrived outside to see the mess that had happened in his absence. The jungle was on fire, spewing black choking smoke into the clear blue sky. Thanks to the wind it was spreading south and would make a longer hike back to Station Square. He jumped as he heard a rustling sound in the bushes behind him.  
  
Ready to smash a badnik he peeled away the foliage and discovered Tails. He looked bad to say the least. His fur was burned in patches here and there along with cuts and a few bruises, but it looked like someone had just beaten him instead of killing him. He'd wished he had agreed to let Tails take the Cyclone with them into the ruins. They could have avoided the traps, the badniks and even taken 'everyone' down into the core with him instead of leaving them to this. So preoccupied was he regretting his actions over his fallen partner that he didn't notice someone else's approach from behind.  
  
"Well, y'all sure did pick a fine time to walk up outta there 'after' we got ah behinds handed to us," Bunnie rasped.  
  
Sonic turned around and saw that Bunnie was just as bad off as Tails and was dragging her robotic arm at her side. "What happened out here?"  
  
She shrugged with her other shoulder and winced a little before answering," Danged if ah know, suguh-hog. Something came out of the jungle and ambushed us. Popped me an' Tails right outta the air before we knew what was goin' on."  
  
Sonic looked around the area and listened for a few seconds. Something wasn't right. Something was definitely missing. "Bunnie, where's Sal?"  
  
"..."  
  
Sonic bristled up and yelled, "Answer me!"  
  
"Ah set her down over there," she sobbed, pointing to the right. "Ah just told her to run for it before whatever it was got me. Ah couldn't stop it, Sonic."  
  
The hedgehog didn't say anything else. He ran off in the direction Bunnie said Sally had run in. He was seething now. Angry at Bunnie for letting Sally get into a situation like this. Angry at Tails for being sneaked up on like he was. Angry at himself for not being there when he was needed. Angry at Shadow for slowing him down in the core. He looked down at the ground following the trail of destruction and footprints that Sally and the mysterious attacker had left behind. Trees had been knocked down creating a more treacherous path ahead of him that was still on fire. Just at the edge he decided to stop and have a look around. The air was cool in that newly made clearing for some reason. The fire roared on almost every side yet it wasn't even uncomfortable. A certain sound caught Sonic's attention over every other sound around him. Like the static on a radio or a telephone dial tone it was monotonous and plain. It was a background sound that he hadn't heard in over two years. It didn't surprise him in the least when he finally found Nicole, the computer's screen highlighted with a program that closed a few seconds after he picked up the device. A few seconds were all his trained eyes needed.  
  
Bunnie looked up from her place on the ground where she had collapsed when Sonic dashed away. Sonic had appeared with a gust of wind next to Tails' prone form. He knelt down and hauled him up over his shoulder. He strolled over to where Bunnie sat and held out his hand.  
  
"It's a long way back to the hospital, so you'd better hang on tight," He said.  
  
Bunnie grabbed a hold and they were instantly off, cutting into the trail at speeds that only a few others can match on foot like Sonic can move at. His body was on auto pilot, letting the sounds of the jungle and the rush of images pass him by on the way back to the city while his mind raced back as well. It raced back into his memory where he'd seen that exact same desktop that painted Nichole's video screen on a much larger screen. In another dimension far away he saw it in Times Square, summoned by a malevolent creature he came to know as an ally. Now he saw that he was wrong. The only creature that could summon the Gate of Damnation as an attack or on an electronic device was 'him'. And if 'he' was here on Mobius working in tandem with the Shadow wannabe who stole his digivice, then Sally was in great danger.  
  
'You can tell Rouge that I expect to see her soon...'  
  
'It's a Super Emerald. And my partner and I are down here to collect it.'  
  
'Partner...?'  
  
The thought of Shadow's supposed partner stewed in Sonic's head. He flew past the ladder that led up to the tunnel through the mountainside and with a scream from Bunnie began to run straight up the side. Something in the bushes opened it's pink eyes and looked in his direction, marveling the speed and concentration to pull off such a defiance to gravity. It's whole body soon became visible and an instant later disappeared in a great flash of light.  
  
------------------------  
  
"I don't trust him."  
  
"Hazard said it didn't matter if we trusted him. We just need to use him."  
  
"It doesn't matter. I don't trust any machine that I haven't programmed myself, let alone one that thinks for itself."  
  
True enough, Shadow and Hazard had taken the automaton's offer seriously and put him to work on the menial tasks of a lab gofer. At the present moment he was being overseen by Whelpmon and Shadow on high balcony over a larger lab facility on ARK. In the past two hours Eggrobo had moved all of the necessary equipment from the thirteenth deck laboratory to the present area. With some disagreement from the hedgehog, Eggrobo was given command over some of the higher class hunter androids without weapons to lift things for him. There wasn't any real power involved but knowing he had someone or something roaming around the colony listening in on certain things made Shadow and his digimon friend a little apprehensive about trusting him.  
  
"Hazard thinks that he's just a stupid machine, but I've seen what these 'badniks' can do firsthand," Shadow stated. "They learn, they scheme, they feel ,and they grow just as we do. The mind of the animal pilot within drives them alongside Dr. Robotnik's programming. He may be pre-E-100 series, but I'd wager that he's just as intelligent. Maybe even more so."  
  
To punctuate the hedgehog's statement Eggrobo kicked one of the Hunters in the tail with his stubby leg and told him to work harder. They seemed to be covering the back of each of the containment tubes with some kind of sheet metal. Reinforcement.  
  
"Indeed," Whelpmon said. "Not as smart as a digimon, but bright. I wonder why Dr. Eggman ever gave him up."  
  
"Left him there in Final Egg as a sub-boss in that territory," Hazard said.  
  
She materialized on the balcony railing and slid off to the floor twenty- some feet below. She swaggered up to the working robots and started talking to the egg- shaped android. Shadow turned away in disgust.  
  
"Why does he bother you so?" Whelpmon asked.  
  
"He just gets under my skin. He's too shady for my liking. Too much like Eggman. He has something going on and I aim to find out what before it's too late."  
  
Hazard looked up at Shadow and motioned for him to come down. He leaped down and activated his Scorchers so as to glide down to the floor. Upon landing Hazard snatched up the Super Emerald from his right glove.  
  
"Thank you," she said as she started shedding the life support device again.  
  
"We're going to start another modification right after a mission?" Shadow said. "I saw how it wiped you out the last time. I wouldn't want you dying on me now."  
  
Hazard smiled brightly and looked in Shadow's direction. "Oh how sweet. You're worried about me."  
  
Shadow snorted and turned away. "I really don't care much about you. All I want from you is the computer codes for those journal entries and those experimentation plans that you've been making us use on you. Whatever Project: Lazarus is I don't want it falling into the wrong hands, even if it's just a sophisticated healing process."  
  
"That was enlightening," Hazard pouted as she lowered into the tank again. 'Bastard.'  
  
The stage was set. Eggrobo was at the side of the Chaos Siphon, monitoring it's power outtake. Shadow was at the controls again with his Chaos Emerald in hand, checking over Hazard's vitals. And finally Whelpmon was over at a computer console preparing another evolution program.  
  
"Everyone in position?" Shadow yelled. Everyone gave their approval. The switch for the Siphon was pulled. The program was executed. And the modifications began...  
  
"I fold," the blue hawk said as he threw down his cards. "That's just too rich for my blood."  
  
"So do I," the gorilla sighed as he too dropped out of the game.  
  
"So that only leaves me and them, hmm?" the hedgehog said confidently. "Too easy."  
  
They were in a sweltering hot bar in the swamps of the Great Continent. On one side of the table is a hedgehog wearing a black trench coat and shades, he has a good sized pile of money and precious gems on his side. On the other side of the poker table are three other mobians, a weasel, a frog, and a lynx. Neither of them is backing down. And nobody expects to walk away a loser. Their piles are surprisingly very small compared to the hedgehog's.  
  
"I'll up the anny, hedgehog," the frog rasped. He held up a small gem and set it down on the table upon his pile. "And raise you that."  
  
"Hey Fly, are you insane or something," the gorilla roared. "What do you think you're doing?"  
  
"Don't worry about it boss," the frog replied coolly. "Just relax and watch me do my thang?"  
  
"Hit me," the lynx said as he was handed a card. He smirked when it was added to his hand.  
  
The lighting overhead was dim and the place smelled of beer, urine, and sweat mostly because of the humidity from the swamp. It wasn't the kind of establishment you took your family to, it was the type of place that attracted the undertow of Mobius from all around. Bounty hunters, Mercenaries, thieves, drug dealers, and prostitutes plied their trade here. And the locals knew if you were looking for trouble that you came here. Tonight was no different. A gang of hoodlums had come in and started a poker game tonight and everyone who played with them was fleeced. There was no discrimination either, if you had some cash or something valuable you could play. There wasn't any guarantee you'd win however.  
  
"Bring it down, man," the weasel said as he laid out his cards. "Full house! I guess I'll be leaving with my cash now huh?" he started reaching for the piles of his fellows just as his arms were batted away by the buck-toothed frog.  
  
"Nuh-uh, Nack," the frog said as he laid down his own hand. "What's that hmm?" He lifted up Nack's hands and slipped out a deck of cards from his gloves that looked exactly like the same as the ones they were playing with. "Sarge, show this weasel the door."  
  
The hefty gorilla got up from his seat and grabbed Nack by his large tail. Then he proceeded to drag him away kicking and screaming about it not being fair. Sargent Simian threw Nack out of the bar and into the swamp outside. Nack muttered something for a moment before collecting his hat and leaving.  
  
"Before I was so rudely interrupted," the frog chuckled. "Straight flush, man."  
  
The lynx slammed down his own cards, a cadre of Aces and proclaimed," Four of a kind, Fly." The dejected frog did a face fault and groaned while he slammed his fist again and again on the table.  
  
The cat was about to claim his booty from all over the table before he remembered that he'd forgotten all about the hedgehog. "Oh yeah, the rich guy who's been rippin' people all night, I forgot about you...whatcha got?"  
  
The hedgehog, for the first time all night after seeing what he'd wanted finally smiled and laid down his cards. A straight royal flush, 10 through king of hearts was all there and there wasn't anything that the lynx could do to dispute it: he'd lost. The hedgehog chuckled as he pocketed the frog's gem and started hugging the rest of the cash and jewels toward himself.  
  
"Wait a sec," the lynx shouted as he grabbed the hedgehog's arm. "You cheated! You must have cheated to beat me!"  
  
"How's that," the hedgehog asked after shrugging off the fool's claw.  
  
"I stacked the damn deck myself, that's how, rodent! I'm fast enough to see the cards when I shuffle. Now you can give me half that cash and we can call it even or me and my friends here can kick your ass all over the swamp. What's it gonna be?"  
  
The hedgehog laughed heartily and said," Who do you think you're meddling with? I could have tore you all limb from limb the second you'd walked in here and taken what I'd wanted, but I was feeling generous, so I won it instead. Now you're threatening me because compared to me you're moving in quicksand with those slow ass sleight of hand tricks you were using." He removed his shades to reveal a pair of luminous red eyes. "Maybe I will kill you for kicks..."  
  
The lynx was taken aback by this but not scared in the least by it. The other three who'd taken part in the game were rallying around the table. Each one of them might have looked like formidable fighters, but the hedgehog was bored with this show of bravado and wished that they'd get it over with. To his right were Flying Frog and Predator Hawk. To his left were Sergeant Simian and Lightning Lynx. Once upon a time they were all an elite squad of fighters. A personal vanguard for Mammoth Mogul.  
  
"Nobody talks that way about the Fearsome Foursome and lives," Simian said while he cracked his knuckles.  
  
"Yeah," Hawk said. "Who do you think you are, you stupid hedgehog? Sonic?"  
  
Oh, that is it!  
  
The hedgehog flung his coat into the air, somersaulted over the chair and planted his feet in Lynx and Frog's faces. He sprung from that position with his hands and delivered a punch to Simian's jaw that resulted in a loud crack and a flying gorilla. Finally he ended the motion with a swift flying spin attack to bounce off of Hawk's chest and land on the table in a crouch. His coat landed in his hand and he put it back on.  
  
He spit on the bird and yelled to the whole bar," I am not Sonic!!! Get it through your thick heads now: I am Shadow! And I am the Ultimate Life-form, greater than that blue buffoon ever will be!"  
  
He pivoted in place and leapt into the air," CHAOS CONTROL!!!" And was gone...  
  
In the corner a rather large cat with a frog sitting on his head lifted his glove and flicked a switch. His eyes seemed to glint with a strange intelligence that wasn't there a moment ago. A dark presence that nobody was aware of in the laid back giant. Suddenly he spoke...  
  
"This is Big, sir. I have a positive sighting on the hedgehog again...yes he has taken the stone from those guys...I will...Big out."  
  
The cat resumed his act of slow normalcy and petted the frog on top of his head which croaked noisily. Froggy leaped off and onto the table to look up at his not so blank friend. They had tracked Shadow here and moved very quickly from place to place in order to recapture him just like last time when he first escaped. He and Big wouldn't be making any mistakes this time. They would recover the stones and hopefully get through with their mission this time. They would recapture the Ultimate Life-form at any cost.  
  
It was jutting out of the cliff. It glinted in the sun when you looked at it in just the right way in the day and reflected the moonlight at night. Right now it was the middle of the day, noon really. The sun was high overhead and it could be seen perfectly. It was embedded on the underside of a rock outcropping over the Marble Gardens. It was a long fall down if one fell from the smooth stone and marble that most of the Zone was known for. Of course our adventurer didn't happen to care about that right now. He didn't have to worry about falling. He rode the thermals provided by the volcanic activity at the bottom of the gorge. His red dreadlocks waved in the wind as he glided up to the outcropping and slammed his spike fists into the smooth stone. While anchored with one fist and a foothold hastily made by the other, the red individual pulled up the pouch of tools from around his waist and got down to work. He meticulously chipped away the stone from his prize bit by bit with a small pick. He set aside the pick and wiggled the thing a bit, yet it still would not give way.  
  
After a bit more cajoling from his free hand and knuckle claws, he finally pulled it free. He put it into the pouch and climbed up the cliff. Without a bit of strain he rolled himself up onto the edge and sat down admiring the view. He was already on the mountain, just a few hours away from the Mushroom Hills. He could faintly make out the outlines of the huge fungus that grew there jutting just above the trees. Beyond that were the rivers and forests near the bustling city he'd come from that morning. It was okay to have his mother back, to know his father was alive and to know about the Brotherhood, but he didn't feel that way. Things were changing way too fast. In a few months he'd have a new sister or brother, the Technocracy was beginning to integrate into society, and the worst thing of all, the Super and Chaos Emeralds in Haven and the Zones around the island had begun fluctuating lately. Yes, the life of a Guardian is a calm and glamorous one. Often he wondered why he didn't just do what Athair had and just give up his status. Why not give up being the Guardian and just become a treasure hunter?  
  
He looked at the green shard in his hand. It was proof of his skill in that profession, it would have been nearly impossible for anyone else to find such a rare thing and survive. It was only a simple chore he'd put off since Eggman had assaulted the island the first time during the Chaos incident and blown up the precious Master Emerald. Without the shard in his hand the Island would continue shifting course every year instead of the usual drifting flight path it keeps manually. He pulls the hat his Grandfather Hawking gave him over his eyes and mutters to himself," Because that's the easy way out, Knuckles. And whenever we take that way it causes a whole lotta headaches later." He looks out over the island that is his domain and sighs. "Why couldn't I have the hedgehog's job?"  
  
"'Cause maybe you're too slow," someone said as they yanked down his hat over his face and snatched away his pouch.  
  
Knuckles struggled with the hat on his face a few seconds before snatching it off and standing up. "Who's there? Show yourself! If you're one of Espio's friends I swear..."  
  
"I'm no chameleon," the voice teased from behind his back. "But I'll give you a hint. I'm cold blooded, I'm fast, and I hate Sonic."  
  
"Who in the-?" the echidna said as he turned around. He didn't see anything on that cliff, but he felt it. As his training suggested he felt out the area he was in. He shut everything out of his mind for a second. No howling wind from the canyon, no crickets, no birds, nothing but the sound of a heartbeat. The sound of breathing...to the left! He lashed out with his hand and snatched away his pouch again.  
  
"Hmph!" the phantom said as she slowly became visible. Her eyes first, then the face, the body, the arms, and the tail. She was orange except around the face and claws. Knuckles was kind of puzzled though, chameleons usually had horns and never had hair like the kind she had. Dragons? Maybe... "Not going to cooperate, huh?"  
  
Knux snorted. "I really don't have the time to play, alright? I just got finished getting this shard and I've got to fuse it back with the Master Emerald."  
  
The lizard turned her back for a moment and said," Who said I was playing around?" Suddenly the air cracked as her tail cracked like a whip and cut in front of the guardian's chest. The pouch was cut in half and its tools as well as the Master shard fell out of the pouch onto the ground.  
  
Knuckles yelped and then jumped on top of the shard, trying to scoop it up and fly away. Why deal with a fight you don't need when your enemy can't follow you? He snatched up the gem and then back-flipped off the cliff. After shoving the shard into his glove he spread his arms wide and began gliding on the warm thermals provided by the Zone.  
  
Heh, well that was easy, Knuckles thought as he leveled out. I wonder who the hell that was anyway?  
  
"Chaos Control!"  
  
Knuckles did a double take as he saw the lizard appeared in the air right in front of him. He suddenly banked to the right. "What the fu-Argh!"  
  
She smacked him in the back of the head as she swept in front of him. The lizard was gliding along in front of him on the same sort of hover skates that Shadow had used. "You've gotta do better than that, echidna. Now why don't you just land so we can settle this fairly? Lets say you give me the gem or I can take it and throw you in a volcano, huh." This person's cheerfully evil disposition made Knuckles' stomach churn. He swept to the left and dived down into the ruins of the Zone. Hazard lifted her eyebrow and began a slow descent into the broken temples and structures of civilizations long past. As she landed the size of the place began to expand more and more. As she touched the ground it started to shake violently. The buildings began to shift a bit and some of the taller ones sunk into the ground as others rose up to reveal incredible halls of smooth rock.  
  
She found herself constantly looking over her shoulder as she wandered through the shifted maze of tunnels and arches. This place was strangely disturbing...ugh! More fear? To alleviate the thought that she was a coward, Hazard started running toward the open doorway of one of the temples. Just as she walked inside a huge column shut the entrance behind her. All light was shut off from the room for a few moments before-  
  
Fwoomph! Fwoomph!  
  
Two bonfires on either side of the room lit simultaneously and revealed the horror that was to come. It was a beast. A hulking insect made of green shining metal. It had six arms, each one ending in a hand of picks, needles, and drills. It's feet consisted of thick treads, half rusted as though never used until now. Knuckles stepped into the light on top of the resurrected badnik's head, arms crossed with a devious smile on his face and his eyes shadowed by the brim of his hat.  
  
"Well, well, well," Knuckles gloated. "Aren't we the high and mighty conqueror, falling for an obvious trap. Why do you think I shifted the place around, anyway? Thinking I was gonna run away?" Knux threw back his head and cackled for a moment before he stumbled upon a realization. It really was funny to have your opponent at your mercy. So all those stupid villains he'd been beating the living tar out of for all those years did have something to laugh at when they unveiled some insipid deathtrap meant for him. Maybe now he'd steal one of their lines. "Do you have any last words? Even if they are 'Chaos Control' that'll mean you're outta my hair and away from my emerald."  
  
Hazard fixed a steely glare on the cocky guardian and started strolling toward the immense insect robot.  
  
"Have it your way," Knuckles said as he pressed a few switches on the machine's remote.  
  
The robot charged forward and swung it's arms wildly. Each one struck the rock with pinpoint accuracy, each time in the area where Hazard's head was a split- second beforehand. The orange blur never stopped moving around the chamber, clinging to walls and ceilings in order to avoid the rapidly moving limbs. As she entered the light again Knuckles could see that there was a surprisingly bored look on her face.  
  
Oh well, Hazard thought as she rounded the slow moving badnik once again. Let's end this, I've got better things to do...don't I?  
  
One arm cracked through the air right in front of Hazard as she leapt up and tucked herself into a ball. At the speed she was running all it took was for her to shift her momentum off her tail and into her body and deliver a dash attack to the arm. As she rebounded off the entire machine shook in the normal badnik way. This process was repeated nine more times with each of the arms and a few rebounds on the body when Knux decided to try and run the emerald thief over. When all was said and done the arms hung on the sides limply, the motors and engines within the robot ran sluggishly, and the main computer had crashed. Knuckles clapped in appreciation of the feat exhibited before him.  
  
"Very cool," the guardian said as he crushed the control. "But..."  
  
He leapt off of the robot and right in Hazard's face. He smirked a second, showing off his glowing canines, just before belting her one across the jaw. She flew across the chamber from the blow and smashed into the side of the urn with the bonfire in it. Stars danced over her eyes as red and white blurs pummeled her chest. Finally the strange apparition lifted her off the ground and held her up by her shirt.  
  
"How about we haul you out to the Echidnapolis jail for interfering in a guardian's duty to his people," Knuckles chuckled. "Or maybe I should leave you here to think about why you'd do something like this. It was some good exercise for me though, haven't given a beat down like this to somebody in ages."  
  
Hazard tilted her head to the side and whispered something Knuckles couldn't hear precisely.  
  
Knux pulled her closer and said," Wha-?  
  
"Ee...haa...pii...er."  
  
"Say what?"  
  
Hazard grabbed Knux by the throat and threw him into the air. She opened her mouth wide and a plume of fire enveloped the red echidna just as he hit the ground.  
  
"I said,' Eat hot piping fire!'," Hazard said as she wiped the blood from her mouth. She walked over to Knuckle's smoking body and snatched up the shard, a second later she was gone in a flash of light.  
  
Knuckles finally got the strength to stand up and began to stumble his way out of the cave. "Nobody's ever gonna believe this." He thought about what Julie-su and the rest of the Chaotix would think if he'd told them he'd gotten his ass kicked on his own turf. "...Even if I did want to tell them..."  
  
Chapter 10  
  
"---Uh-huh...No, no, no I'm not doubtin' ya Knux...okay, I'll see ya later. Peace, man."  
  
The blue hedgehog hung up the phone and looked out the window. It was night and it was raining again. Every time he came to Station Square it rained for some reason and with that rain came some kind of misfortune. Chaos, Shadow...What the hell? Why not just go and find him? He'd bumped into him in the core by mistake, he'd probably still be in the area.  
  
Oh come on. He's just about as fast as you are. Even if he didn't have Chaos Control he could be in and out of the city in two minutes.  
  
Sonic sighed as he looked back on the last two days. Bunnie's limbs still had a while to go before the repairs were complete. Tails' burns weren't done healing enough for him to start moving around again. And what's worse, he didn't know how to break it to the King that Sally was missing.  
  
'You can tell Rouge that I expect to see her soon...'  
  
Sonic shifted in his chair and looked out on the dark skyline of Station Square. It wasn't doing him any good to sit here on his ass looking out of the window for a solution that wouldn't come by him just sitting there. Sonic stood up and a second later the nurses at the main desk on that floor had to deal with the flying papers strewn about by the sudden wind.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------  
  
The doorbell rang for what must have been the umpteenth time in the past two minutes. The occupant of the condo was getting a bit annoyed with her unwelcome visitors and got up to got deal with them. It was a mystery who'd come out there this time of night.  
  
Finally she opened the door. "I don't know what it is you're selling and I don't care. Just get out of here—"  
  
The pest wasn't the usual salesman or the postal worker, or even one of the fools from the office job she was working at who insisted upon her taking her work home. It was two wet people standing in the doorway being soaked by the rain. A short looking lizard girl who was shivering from the biting cold of the storm. And standing next to her with his arm draped over her shoulder was somebody the white bat thought she would only see as a figment of her imagination.  
  
The black and red streaked hedgehog narrowed his eyes and said," Well aren't you going to let us in? It's cold as hell out here."  
  
And that in itself was just too much. Rouge's eyes rolled up in the back of her head and she blacked out.  
  
"That was pathetic," Hazard said as she stepped over the unconscious bat and inside. Shadow followed behind her with Rouge in hand.  
  
"Weird place," Shadow said as he sat back into the leather sofa. Rouge's place reflected her personality: flashy, exuberant, independent, dark, and most importantly of all it was expensive. On the coffee table were the usual oddities one like Rouge would have and want to show off to others. A Faberge egg that must have been a small fortune. There were some issues of Precious Stones Monthly, the one on top had a picture of Knuckles the Echidna holding a Chaos Emerald. A remote control for the big screen TV situated in front of the couch. The rest of the living room was cozy enough, nice furniture and carpet, but the hot pink walls really crept Hazard out.  
  
In one of the corners was a familiar looking sculpture that caught Shadow's eye. It was made from red clay. A nice little project. She even got the quills to look right, flared out from his back and head. There was something strange about it, something not quite right that he couldn't put his finger on. "In case you're wondering, Shadow, he's smiling," Rouge said, rubbing her head. "I never thought I'd ever get you to model for it though the way it is. You're way too serious for that."  
  
Indeed, it was a clay representation of the black hedgehog smiling in a thumbs-up pose. If he hadn't known better he'd have sworn it were...naw. They couldn't have looked that alike... could they? He'd never really given it much thought. He hadn't had time to find anything fun to do, anything the slightest bit enjoyable aside from the card game a few days ago.  
  
"Yes, I noticed," Shadow mused. "I see you've been doing well in the past year and a half. You quit working for the government?"  
  
She sat down on the couch and lifted her feet up onto the table, dusting off the way oversized nightshirt she was wearing. "Got way too dangerous. I'm a security consultant now. Who better to make the security systems than somebody who slips through them all the time?" She raised an eyebrow. "Where's your friend at?"  
  
"Aren't you going to at least ask me how I'm still alive," the black hedgehog asked, a bit disappointed. "Sonic asked when I met up with him. Did he spread the word to you already?"  
  
"I haven't spoken to Sonic or Knuckles since the last day we saw you. Knuckles just pissed me off the more and more I saw him. And Sonic...he reminded me too much of you."  
  
Shadow blinked a few times at hearing that. "Say what?"  
  
"Oh come on, Shadow. You rescued me from something akin to a nuclear explosion and you expect me to think you're dead from falling through the atmosphere." She looked up at him with tear streaked eyes. "It wasn't a question of 'if' you'd turn up, but 'when'."  
  
There came a odd sound of clanging from one of the rooms on the second floor and some cursing. "Okay, I'll bite. Where've you been and who's the girl going through my stuff? If she digs deep enough she'll find a pleasant little surprise."  
  
Snap!  
  
"Oh goddammit!!!"  
  
Shadow sighed. "I guess that would be it. She's extremely stubborn when she thinks she's got a lead on something. So it looks like I've got some time to tell you the whole story."  
  
For the next half hour Shadow reminisced with his old ally, and dare I say friend, about the last year and what he'd been doing with himself, Hazard, and what she had to do with it. Suffice to say, Rouge's life had been boring and going downhill since the ARK incident when she threw in her resignation with her subsidiary of GUN and went into business for herself. Their story swapping was interrupted only by the sudden cursing, screaming, and yelling that was coming from up the stairs each time Hazard was snapped by a rat trap or shocked with a remote taser. Booby traps left for people who looked where they weren't supposed to...  
  
"—So that's pretty much it," Rouge said, finishing up. "I work as a nine-to- fiver telling morons how to protect themselves from thieves only half as good as me. Filing reports and rejecting every guy who approaches me who works with me. All losers with no lives."  
  
"And what would you prefer," Shadow yawned. "A suave rich jewel collector who travels the world and who would drop you fast as hell for the next pretty thing that ran past? I never have and possibly never will understand you."  
  
"You're not meant to, Shadow. Besides, I like survivors. Guys who pursue their goals to the ends of Mobius and back. A guy who likes it when somebody throws them a curve. Someone who looks for trouble and points at it with a sharp stick. Somebody with more than nine lives who doesn't know when to give up." She edges closer down the couch toward him. "Someone who can't be beaten, who doesn't have much time for games and gets straight to the point." She snuggles up to him and looks up into his eyes. "Somebody like ---"  
  
"Shadow!" Hazard whined as she slid down the stairs. "I still can't find it. Can you go check for me? It's like a needle in a haystack with all that ugly jewelry up there."  
  
"She didn't just say what I think she said, did she?" Rouge fumed through gritted fangs. "Whose gems are you calling ugly?!"  
  
Shadow quickly got up off the couch and started on up the stairs muttering to himself. "Lazy SOB, can't even use the emerald right to find the stupid thing. I swear..."  
  
This of course left Hazard alone with the buxom bat. Not precisely the best thing in the world.  
  
"Could you have come at a more annoying time," Rouge asked the orange creature stretching on the staircase.  
  
"Did I miss anything," Hazard said. "I wouldn't want my partner getting too chummy with everyone else now would I? I wouldn't want him giving away my secrets now. Or revealing our plans, hmm?"  
  
"Now I'm the one that missed something. I was under the impression that you were just his partner...or are you trying to be something more? Listen, hon, you're just not his type."  
  
"What exactly is his type, then, bat-girl? I'm sure I've spent a lot more time with him than you have and I think I know what he's like."  
  
"Manic-depressive, moody, blank, delusional, brave, romantic, mysterious, and very dependable from that weird devotion he had to that Maria he liked to speak of so much."  
  
Hazard narrowed her eyes. "Maria?"  
  
"Yeah. An old friend from a long time ago...I think his only friend." She looked down at the floor then over at Hazard. "He trusts you. I can see that from the way he protects you, sheltering you. Like there's something special about you."  
  
"What about you? He apparently has some kind of affection for you too from the way you two were sitting when I came back down here. He might just leave the mission up to me and those other mechanized dolts back at HQ and stay here with you."  
  
Rouge chuckled to herself at the idea. "No, girl. That just wouldn't be him. He respects me, sure. I can be a proven threat to him as well as an ally, so at least he knows where he stands with me. A year ago I was a co-worker, Dr. Robotnik was a maniacal accessory, and Sonic was his Ultimate rival. Now, I suppose each one of us has changed. I'm practically out of the adventuring gig. Sonic...if I hadn't heard it from him I'd have thought the blue moron and his friend were dead by now. And don't even get me started on Knuckles." She snorted and looked around the room. "I suppose I should get outta the rut, huh? Start hunting jewels again, maybe. Scam a couple of those banks that are hiring me next week, heh. But first, here," She started fiddling around her foot and handed the strange ring to Hazard. "I guess I don't need it to remember him as long as I know he's alive."  
  
"Wha-?"  
  
"You'd get the battle of your life out of me, girl. And from what I'm seeing at the moment there's already a 'flat-line' for any sort of competition for that hedgehog's heart," Rouge said batting her eyes in her direction. Hazard looked down at herself at bit self-consciously thinking about that stinging comment before scuttling off without a word. As Hazard slumped away, doubting herself and, for the first time giving a damn about her appearance, Rouge snatched up the remote and flipped on the tube.  
  
Cute kid, she thought. A bit too sensitive, though.  
  
Shadow walked down the stairs and then settled himself down next to Rouge. "You didn't have to start putting ideas in her head, you know," he whispered in her ear. "She actually thinks she's manipulating me."  
  
Rouge flicked a few stations before just settling on a news network. "She's under the impression that you and I...well you know. And there's obviously some attraction there."  
  
"On whose side?"  
  
Rouge smirked. "You guys sticking around or did you just come here for that bracelet and to mess with the kid's mind? I have work tomorrow, ya know."  
  
"Don't we all...Hazard! Lets go!"  
  
Hazard all but rushed out of her corner once she figured out they were leaving. With her stomach twisting in knots she grabbed up her partner and started dragging him towards the door. As they left Hazard stuck out her tongue at Rouge and pulled at her eyelid with her talon on her left eye. (I've seen that gesture so many times and I just assumed it was an insult.)  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------  
  
Sonic dashed across the park as he neared Rouge's home. The lights were out, but there was a whole lot of noise in the area. Sonic easily avoided the tape and the cops barricading the scene and rushed up to the doorway. The heavy wooden door had been bent inwards and lay on the floor in splinters. All of the windows in the two-story condo were shattered and broken. There were impact marks all over the place, mostly with scorch marks. A battle had gone on here, that much was obvious to even him.  
  
Suddenly the paramedics shuffled past the dazed hedgehog and moved their way inside. A few minutes later they were rushing out with somebody on the stretcher. It was Rouge. Her right eye was blackened, one of her shoulders was dislocated, numerous bruises covered her arms and legs, and laser burns were on her wings. Sonic could still smell the smoke pouring off of them. Before Sonic could get to ask any questions about the situation, they had piled into the ambulance and begun to speed off. Not that he couldn't catch up in a hot second, he just wanted to know why the hell another of his friends was in the hospital.  
  
He zipped inside to start searching for clue to a culprit to the crime. The inside was just about as messed up as the out. The place was in shambles. The walls were scorched and cracked with concussion craters. The carpet was all but burned in ten places. The couch was crushed and it's filling strewn all over the room. There was blood staining the floor and even on one of the walls. A sculpture that was unidentifiable was shattered in the corner. It wouldn't have gotten any attention if something in it's remains hadn't caught the blue hedgehog's swift eyes. Upon further inspection he found a small hook embedded in a piece of stone. It was a fishing hook...Who did he know of strong enough to shunt a fishing hook through a statue? He eliminated that possibility the second it occurred. It was just too farfetched.  
  
Before being forced to leave by the police, Sonic tripped in a rather large and deep puddle out front in the garden. He got up and started wringing water out of his quills. He looked down at the huge thing. It was oddly shaped, really deep in the middle, narrow horizontally, and very broad in the front and back. If he didn't know better he'd of sworn it was a—  
  
"Oh, holy shit!" Sonic yelled as he sped off at Mach 2 in search of the huge footed individual who beat Rouge the bat, treasure hunter and expert kick-boxer, nearly to death.  
  
____________________________________________________________________________ __  
  
They have no idea he's there. He's invisible to the morons. He crouching down behind a wall, for all the good it'll do his tall ass. They walked along with a portable scanner in hand and that ridiculous ring that they'd gotten from the Rogue agent he'd beaten their location out of. It wasn't that hard to catch their scents once he'd been led on the right trail. He raised his weapon from his right and aimed it at the light pole they were walking under. With some recoil from the gun that shook his arm, a beam lanced out and all but turned the pole into blackened slag. He rushed from his hiding place behind the wall and lunged into the smoke grabbing at the first thing he saw. He held someone by the neck and lifted them off the ground.  
  
The smoke cleared away and a disoriented Shadow shook the cobwebs from his head as he lifted himself off the ground and assessed the situation. A few feet away their large attacker stood with Hazard held in a headlock. His massive furred arms suggested he could snap her head off in an instant. He carried almost no weapons aside from a small taser on his waist and a fishing pole. He didn't seem the least bit of a threat, he was shaking for some reason, but then again, where had that blast come from?  
  
Shadow grasped the small scanner in hand as it read out all of the data contained within. As he hastily read, it sped off all of data contained on his bracelet's magnetic strip lining the inside. Battle plans, Energy signatures, personal messages, and hundreds of access codes. This was it, the chance to finally do the impossible. It was all within his grasp and all Shadow had to do was take it and leave.  
  
...Leave Hazard to die at the hands of this large assassin. He wasn't listening to anything at the moment. Shutting out the threats on his partner's life from the huge cat, shutting out the half choked pleas, the sound of a frog croaking? All that mattered was this decision, let one die for the needs of others, like he had done a year and a half ago. Or he could save her ungrateful, controlling ass, and possibly end up dead later. He had what he wanted...Why not just run?  
  
He concentrated his thoughts on the energy within his spirit and mind. Hazard's eyes began to tear up, unbelievably she hadn't foreseen this, hadn't thought her predecessor could be more heartless than her. His body began to flare with an unseen source of light and his quills stood out from all over his body. The choice was made...  
  
His shoes let loose with a whistling sound and a plume of flame. Shadow leapt from the ground and immediately began to spin in the air. He took off from that point and began pummeling the huge cat in every conceivable place around his body. The black hedgehog slammed into the cat's arms and then into the small of his back, from there he flew on and cracked him on the head with a final overhead smash. When all was said and done the cat fell over on his belly. Shadow hopped on top of his prize and did a victory dance. As he was gyrating himself to victory music heard only by him, he sweatdropped upon remembering the reason why he did a light speed combo in the first place.  
  
____________________________________________________________________________ __  
  
Sonic rounded the hill just as he heard the crash. He hopped a small fence and came upon another depraved scene. Big had already struck again. The cat was splayed out on the ground with Froggy next to him. A light pole looked to have been damaged in the battle with whoever he had been hunting. The blue blur jumped a little when he heard a rustling sound beside the bench next to him in the bushes. Slowly and carefully, Sonic parted the hedges.  
  
"What the-? Oh, it's just you," a surprised Shadow said. "Are you following me or something? Do you have any idea what kind of night I've had?"  
  
"Where you the one Big was hunting," Sonic asked bluntly.  
  
Shadow thought for a second, checking the pulse of the stunned person lying in front of him. "So that was the name of that insane feline. Suits a creature like him," Shadow muttered. "Yes, he was after me, but for what I don't know. All I know is that I had to dispatch him before he could do any more damage to my partner, here."  
  
Sonic leaned a little over him to get a good look at his black doppelganger's friend. "You do know that he attacked Rouge first, right? She'll be alright, but I'm not sure why he'd go crazy and hurt somebody like that."  
  
Shadow seemed to stiffen a bit after hearing that. "Rouge is a professional...she should know how to take care of herself."  
  
"Taking care of yourself usually doesn't mean fighting off unprovoked attacks by some half ton cat," Sonic snapped. "Or did I think wrong when I assumed that you an' Rouge were pals?"  
  
"You haven't got any right to judge me, blue hedgehog. Don't go making false assumptions because you have no idea what's going on. What I'm doing is much bigger than you and it's none of your business! You have a problem with that?" Sonic didn't answer, he simply stood there staring daggers into his not-so- formal-rival's back.  
  
"Whas goin' on?" Somebody said as they came around. "What the hell happened?"  
  
Hazard finally decided to get up and stretch out the cramps from being crushed under that humongous cat. She did a double take as she saw that Sonic was standing over her along with Shadow. She slowly backed away from the blue hedgehog and ultimately fell back on her behind.  
  
"Do I know you," Sonic said wistfully, breaking his gaze away from the staring contest that he and Shadow were engrossed in.  
  
"N-no, never seen you a day in my life," Hazard lied in her most convincing and unfamiliar sweet voice. She then shoved the Chaos Digivice into her pocket instead of letting it hang from her arm. "I'm...uh...Helene, Helene the dragon. Expert Chaos Emerald hunter at your service."  
  
"I thought you said your name was Haz—mmf," Shadow managed to say before Hazard covered his mouth with her own in a forced passionate kiss. "Mff mmm mmmm mm!!"  
  
'I don't believe he's making me drop down this far so I can complete the mission.' She thought as she forced the flailing hedgehog in her grasp closer. 'He doesn't have a clue as to who I am does he? I'd better keep it that way if I intend to keep my head on my shoulders. Assuming a certain hedgehog doesn't rat me out.'  
  
"Heh, heh, heh, I guess you're Sonic, huh?" Hazard said gripping Shadow from around the neck too tightly for him to talk and almost to breathe. "My Shadow has actually raved for hours and hours about the fights you guys had. I was beginning to think you were too good to be true. Faster than the wind. Stronger than a bear. Smart as a whip. He would go on and on about you."  
  
"Well I am that damn good," Sonic said, letting his ego spread out a bit more.  
  
"And I bet you wouldn't mind getting a few answers from that big, mean cat my black blur just got done with, hmm?" Hazard finally let go of the asphyxiating black hedgehog and patted him on the head. "Pleeaassee...He won't talk to us, since we're his targets, but maybe he'd spill for you. C'mon, it would mean a lot to me." Hazard poured it on with the huge, watering, sorrow-filled pink eyes.  
  
Sonic finally bent to her will with a," Fine, fine already I'll find out for ya. Just don't look at me like that, man."  
  
As Sonic walked away, Hazard smacked Shadow in the back of the head and hissed," Let's go! We don't have all day. Chaos Control, already!"  
  
Shadow stumbled to his feet and after spitting on the ground, grabbed Hazard by the arm. They both faded out of existence with the hoarse mutterings of two words.  
  
____________________________________________________________________________ __  
  
"Say what?" An outraged Sonic yelled. "You're a what?!"  
  
Big covered his large ears and said," Jeez, ya don't hafta be so loud. I'm a GUN agent, Sonic. They saw I was good at trackin' folks, so they made me a deal an' hired me to track down Shadow again."  
  
"...Again?" That's when Sonic remembered it. He was running along down the hill in Station Square west being chased by that super-truck and just as he'd made a last turn, he saw that Big was running alongside him for a second. Another time was at Robotnik's base out in the desert. While he was running in the pyramid he saw Big clinging to a fence. Another at Prison Island out in the shipyard, he was fishing. "Hold the phone...How did you keep up with us, though? There's no way you could have...damn." Sonic the remembered a crackling mutter that came over the line from Knuckles when they were in the core back on ARK:  
  
'Okay I've drained the water and...'crackle' is that B'shh'?'  
  
'Knuckles, are you alright?'  
  
'Uh, yeah Doc. Tell Sonic to go on...What the hell would he be doing 'kshh!''  
  
"It's um, classified," Big said matter-of-factly. "Besides this is none of your business, Sonic, its my job."  
  
"It is my business, Big. Something is going on back at ARK and I have to go find out what. What would a guy like you need from GUN anyway, man? I thought you didn't need money or anything."  
  
Big turned his back on the hedgehog and picked up Froggy. "Look, I'm sorry Sonic, but they saved the ruins by Station Square from bein' dug up. They kept the city from sendin' in those awful archaeologists to cut through the forest and start messin' up the ruins. When that's done they'll run outta money and leave it a mess." He seemed a bit distressed by the whole situation, a quiet fury was in that seemingly slow-witted giant. "They just won't give me the papers so that I can keep the valley clean myself." He chuckled. "If I don' show up at the court, they can't scam anyone."  
  
"You got a point," Sonic said. "What do you know about that chick that was with him though?"  
  
Big looked puzzled for a moment and looked at his hands.  
  
"What is it?"  
  
He turned his palms toward Sonic so that he could see the damage. Something had burned through his tough brown leather gloves and singed his fur and skin on his palms. It must have hurt horribly. A pain Sonic couldn't forget no matter how hard he tried. "They started to burn when I touched that girl. It started on my arms and went an' spread down to my hands," the huge cat said as he picked something off his belt and started to apply it to his hands.  
  
"I know the feeling. C'mon I have a plan that'll solve all of our problems at the same time. Hopefully nobody but the guys I'm thinking about should get hurt...I hope."  
  
____________________________________________________________________________ __  
  
"You're crazy," Hazard said from inside of the tank. "You're both utterly, pitifully, extremely insane! You want me to do what to get a stupid Precious-Stone?"  
  
Eggrobo linked up his optical modem with the machine in front of him and began filling the air in the tank with narcotics. "We need you to go to sleep for a while. It's the only way we can get it from whatever strange subliminal world it resides in. It doesn't really exists, it's just a temporal/psionic signal that most of you organisms exist on in the phase of nocturnal regeneration cycle. When you mentally image a repressed desire or skewed memory it becomes easy to try and seek out the stone, without the narcotic agents being fed intravenously into the chamber you wouldn't have much time to locate the stone on that plane of nonexistent reality and allow us to find it using methods which utilize the energies of the Ancient Walker theorem equation that my former master had in his database. Do you comprehend all of this or shall I digress further?"  
  
Both Shadow, Hazard, and Whelpmon sweat-dropped.  
  
The robot seemed to slump forward a bit as his patience subroutines kicked in. "Listen closely this time: The stone is said to exist in your dreams, on a level of REM sleep that is in sync with the wavelength of the red Chaos Emerald to be exact. Since you have merged with the emerald itself like Shadow has to the green you can be the one to go to sleep, enter the background dream realm in which the stone hides itself, find it ,and awaken with it merged within you. I will use the drugs to keep you under until I see fit to bring you back—"  
  
"Or I see fit," Shadow said as he held up a portable laser at the portly badnik. "To destroy you if you try anything sly."  
  
Hazard started to sway a bit. "But why can't Shadow or Whelpmon do it?"  
  
"Hyperactive immune system and metabolism; the drugs don't work on us," Shadow boasted. If the light headedness and blurring vision hadn't started kicking in, Hazard would have saw him smirk. "Ultimately perfect... Just think of it, though, near invincibility. Enhanced strength and speed and all you have to do is take a --"  
  
"NAPP!!" (I think that's the high trilling sound that a Nightopian makes)  
  
Hazard jumped as she noticed the sudden change in environment. It was a plain of rolling hills covered in lush green grass. The sky in front of her was a beautiful blue, yet she couldn't find the sun. She looked up and saw that the sky was just a ceiling hundreds of stories overhead. A ceiling of green fields. Okay...that was certainly something strange. Hazard took off at a sprint and looked out over the rest of the gleaming land. It was...perfect. The rivers were crystal clean and blue. Towers that linked the 'ceiling' with the earth were all over the place mostly linked with large fences.  
  
As she skated past small cute angelic creatures waved at her, despite herself she waved back at them and smiled. She had this strange feeling that she was close. It nagged at her that the further she went in the more and more she didn't want to leave. She breathed in that extraordinarily clean air and let her 'freakish' golden hair fly in the wind.  
  
I can't do that, I'll look stupid, Hazard thought as she mentally laughed at herself.  
  
A cliff was coming up ahead. The river she was skating by made a waterfall there that traveled down and winded around a hill before falling upward onto the 'ceiling'. The effect was an intersecting rainbow of five different shades of purple, green, blue, red, yellow, and orange. She smirked deviously and increased her speed.  
  
Oh, what the hell!!  
  
She leapt from the cliff's edge and did a triple spin in midair while flipping herself vertically in a 540. Just as she span the last few times and neared the end of the arc she went through the rainbow. Hazard landed in the shallow waters on the shore opposite from the cliff and looked back at the stunt she'd just pulled. It was so far up, yet at the time it didn't feel scary at all...it was in fact quite exciting.  
  
She leisurely enjoyed the strange zone for about a half hour more, exploring every nook and cranny she could go to, swimming in the river au natural, playing with the strange angelic creatures who inhabited this world, playing hide and seek, even climbing the towers until she was walking on the 'ceiling'. This last feat was met with some partial failure when she fell for at least a minute and a half, screaming all the way down. When she impacted on the ground it cushioned her fall like a huge pillow, sinking her in and then pushing her back up like a mattress. Confused for a second, the orange creature looked up and down and then around at the angels sitting around her. As if some kind of strange signal was given, all of them began to laugh at the same time. It was mass hysteria for a few minutes, the whole Zone seemed to laugh alongside all of them making the joyous echoing sound of happiness fill the place.  
  
When it came time to eat, Hazard found that the rocks were in fact rock candy. Taste had apparently been repaired with the enhancements of the Power Stone, because Hazard gorged herself on the sweets provided by the valley. The grass tasted like cotton candy, the tree leaves like sour balls, and even the colored water around the rainbow tasted great. Different flavored soda was all it was.  
  
When Hazard had her fill she wished those strange angels a happy goodbye and walked off toward the Precious Stone. The pulsing began to become more and more urgent the faster she moved. As it got almost to much for her to feel she came upon a large hill, a small mountain really. On the top was a temple or something. As she climbed up she heard somebody singing a melodious little tune she couldn't help but whistle along with. His voice was alto and sort of low, yet he didn't need a microphone. His song blotted out all other sounds around him.  
  
"In the night, dream delight, I want to see you standing there," he sang. "In the night, dream delight, you are the one that really cares... Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see you standing there, I'm Nights. Who are you?"  
  
She was awestruck by the strange Nights. He had on a mime or a jester's outfit. It was purple pants combined with a white overly large sleeved shirt, over that was a violet vest. On his head was a strange hat that was pronged like two big ears or horns, it was striped with barely visible violet and slightly darker violet bands. His eyes were black and darker than the blackest night, they were giving off their own blue tinged light. In the middle of his chest was imbedded a light red jewel. To her he was the very definition of perfection in a male.  
  
"I-I-I...Haz-um...Pr-precious S-St-stone...I came f-for th-the..."Hazard stammered.  
  
"Well 'Haz-um' I'd be more than willing to give you one, so long as you come back with that," Nights said as he pointed his free floating right hand over her shoulder. And right there behind her was some sort of red glowing energy sphere that pulsed twice every second: in time with her heartbeat.  
  
"Sure," Hazard squeaked, blushing brightly.  
  
"Good, I really do hope to see you again, a dreamer like you is extremely rare, Hazard," Nights said as he waved his hand in indistinct flashy movements and finally extending it out to Hazard. "Take my hand..."  
  
Hazard hesitated for a second before stretching out her right talon to him. He took it and pulled her off her feet and into the Ideya palace with him. He spun around with her twice before pulling them both together and finally to merge. Hazard now wearing Nights like a special suit flew out of the palace and into the air. She flew like a maniac, swerving trees and mountains in her wake just in the nick of time. It was incredible. She increased the speed and flew up finally to the sun. That golden disk of light beckoned to her...  
  
Hazard...  
  
Hazard...  
  
She shot up into the sky towards it's warm presence with her arms wide open to embrace it...  
  
'Hazard...'  
  
"Hazard...?"  
  
So warm...  
  
Suddenly she felt someone else's arms around her torso. She grasped at spiny hair and warm fur and petted down a back toward a tail...? Hazard opened her eyes and saw red. In the red she saw uncertainty and a sort of longing. She'd let the hedgehog hold her like this for a little while longer, she was still on that strange cloud nine that NiGHTS had put her on and for some reason it felt good to be near him. A few moments longer...then she'd slug him for waking her up.  
  
Chapter 11  
  
The doctors were finally pulling the bandages and splints off of Tails' twin appendages. It didn't look too bad, the fur beneath had grown back since Sonic had first found him facedown in the jungle. The ever present ache or pain was gone thanks to the regenerators the hospital used. Tails put his sneakers on and walked outside where his friends were waiting. Bunnie's left arm was still a bit shaky, but the techs had assured them that it would be like that until the new circuitry would begin to adapt to how she moved. The old circuits that regulated nerve impulses that moved the arm had been damaged by the fire and were irreparable.  
  
Tails jumped when he noticed the hulk of muscle and fur standing next to Sonic. "W- what's Big doing here Sonic?" Tails exclaimed. He'd nearly been crushed under that huge cat when he caught the frog who'd swallowed a Chaos Emerald.  
  
"I have a little plan for getting aboard ARK that'll make everyone happy, but I'll need his help," Sonic said.  
  
"What about Sally," Bunnie asked.  
  
"I have an idea who took her and my C.D. But in order for us to make sure, we're gonna have to go up there and figure it out." Sonic clenched his teeth a little as he thought of what he'd have to do. "We might even have to press Shadow for the answers we need. But he chose his side when all of this started."  
  
* * * Sergeant Hall looked out on the compound and then turned back to his duties. The spaceport was under constant surveillance these days, especially with the destruction of one of GUN's premier detention facilities. He swiveled in his chair in the top of his lookout tower. Hall thought of why he was here and not at home with his friends, enjoying the game on TV tonight. Just because some morons out west couldn't keep tabs on their own base and get wiped out wasn't his problem. But he guessed that the brass thought it was and assigned extra security measures to protect the nation from the 'terrorist threat of Project: Shadow'. They certainly weren't taking any chances alright. Five extra quivering bodies and a couple dozen more Beetle drones added to the port for security.  
  
Oh yeah, the hedgehog's gonna laugh himself stupid at the feeble defenses we've got here and then we'll nail him while he's on the ground holdin' his sides, Hall thought sarcastically as he unscrewed a whiskey container and took a swig. Paranoid morons back at command. Need to drop the public image crap and start looking harder for the black bastard.  
  
He got back to his station by the flood light and was met with a metal fist. Lt. Hall wouldn't have to worry about his military career much longer when they dishonorably discharged him the next day.  
  
Bunnie hopped to the next tower fifty feet away and cracked the other sentry from behind, then jumped down to the gate where her friends were waiting. The chain link fence was at least twenty feet high and electrified, beyond that was a five foot thick wall of cement with barbed wire lining the top. Child's play. Sonic was already standing on top of the wall looking down on the thirty acre field of ships and warehouses. There weren't any lights on except in the largest building situated near the launch pad, and only on the first floor at that. The struts for the space shuttle were together and sitting off to the side. Everything was ready.  
  
A whistle pierced the air and Big started through the front gates with his frog sitting on his head. At the security point the officers were checking a his clearance as two figures flitted overhead and up to the warehouse. The enormous cat's clearance was accepted and he walked through to one of the nearby buildings. He waddled up the stairs and into the control center, where Tails was jumping from screen to screen. He moved to the far left end of the room and began tapping commands into the ancient DOS operated systems. He then leapt from where he was and flew at Big. They seemed to struggle for a second before Tails jumped away, knocking he large cat onto his back. Seemingly unconscious.  
  
At least, that's what the security cameras saw.  
  
For the next two hours a phony transmission would be played for the security systems. The place would appear just to looked normal after the staged fight, but in reality Tails had taken Big's identification card and slipped out the second that the cat fell. When the tape started playing, Big got up and walked over to one of the consoles, opening up the bay doors for the shuttle with his security codes. Soon enough the shuttle was T-minus thirty seconds and counting from ARK. Big took his place on the floor and pretended to be unconscious just as security troops arrived to help.  
  
When the shadow play was over, Big was on his way back to the Mystic Jungle with a discharge from GUN and a permanent ban on any sort of archaeological dig in the area. He'd fulfilled his part of the bargain and GUN had begrudgingly done theirs, losing their best tracker in the process. Sonic and co. of course got a way up to ARK. =====================================================================  
  
"Are you almost done down there?"  
  
"Nearly..."  
  
"Well hurry up already, the planet's in view. I don't want to wait another month to get another chance like this again."  
  
"I shall be up in a minute, just as soon as the experiment is done."  
  
"We've only got a weeklong window and we don't know where or, if what you say is true, when the Stones might be. So we have to start now."  
  
"...I shall be ready to embark in two hours. Make the decision on who is going by then."  
  
Eggrobo used his optic modem to finally upload all of the data from the day's experiment into his databanks. He clicked off the lights and paid the poor creature in the soundproofed tube no more attention. As soon as he exits the room a luminescent flash breaks in the darkness. The twin glimmers of light dart over to the tank and then to the papers and folders strewn about the consoles. Research materials. In plain script on the folder on top is 'Digital metamorphic data transfer of biological organisms'. On the papers a DNA sequence is listed as ones and zeros and then combined in a feasible pattern on the next page. On another piece of paper are file names and geometric designs drawn out with mechanical proficiency.  
  
'What is this robot planning,' Shadow thought as he looked into his notes more and more. 'First Hazard, now him? Has everyone but Whelpmon got a ulterior motive here?'  
  
He was about to fade out and Control to the observation deck, but then he heard a sound in the darkness. The hedgehog looks over his shoulder at the holding tank. Inside is a female squirrel, or chipmunk. She looks desperate, banging the Plexiglas tube hard enough to make it shudder. Apparently she can't see or hear him inside of it. Screaming, probably crying, clawing at the glass. Shadow looks away and calmly Chaos Controls away.  
  
On the observation deck, Hazard, Whelpmon, and Eggrobo wait patiently. The decision was already made by paper, scissors, rock; Shadow would be the one to go down to Little Planet and retrieve a Time Stone. Hazard sat back against a railing and looked down on Mobius. Soon enough the plan would come to fruition. Nobody had a clue what was going on besides her and that was the way it was to be kept. If Shadow or his Digimon friend even got one look at what she'd been doing in her spare time, she'd be the one taking a fall through the atmosphere this time.  
  
Eggrobo didn't move much or even talk. He was actually lost in thought, a very rare occurrence for a robot of his archaic design. He'd had two primary objectives back on the floating island. One: Look for Sonic. Two: Kill Sonic. That was the badnik mind in essence. But one accident changed all of that. After being damaged in the Death Egg's second launch, the robot landed in the Hidden Palace Zone. He stayed there for weeks, facedown and forgotten. Like a few badniks before and after him, Eggrobo battled the brain-burn-through software in his system and gained independence. Blessed sentience. The first thing he did was ingratiate himself back in with Robotnik on the eave of his ultimate victory over the Freedom Fighters, and then betray him. He did the same twice more by deactivating certain parts of the security system in the Final Egg and tipping GUN off to the whereabouts of his desert base. Soon enough he would return to Mobius, an ultimate weapon of destruction and lay waste to the facsimile of his creator.  
  
Shadow arrived on deck in a black and silver skintight spacesuit.(Yes, the same PSO suit from 2-player mode) Everyone supposed that he had taken the initiative and decided to go down himself.  
  
"I'll be back in five hours, no more no less," Shadow said. He handed Hazard his Chaos Emerald. "Keep an eye on this for me. I can't take it down without it transporting back to the Chaos dimension." He eyed Eggrobo warily and leaned in close to Whelpmon. "And you keep both eyes on him. Make sure he doesn't go down to his lab while I'm gone."  
  
Whelpmon gave the hedgehog a thumbs up. Shadow nodded and headed off toward the elevator. As soon as the doors closed, Hazard and Eggrobo separated and went opposite ways from the deck.  
  
Chapter 12  
  
Tails sat at the controls of the shuttle looking out at their target. ARK. The place was as massive as it was the last time he'd arrived, only this time there was no asteroid field to hinder his progress. There was a planet. Floating next to ARK, separated only by a few hundred miles was the Zone world, Little Planet. According to legend the place was host to almost every naturally occurring Zone on Mobius. These trap-laden places were host to the Chaos Emeralds, Time Stones, and home to the mysterious Flickies.  
  
"ETA in twelve minutes, guys," Tails said. "I hope you're ready."  
  
Bunnie looked out of the window and set her eyes upon the huge space colony. "How ah we evah gonna find Sally in this big place? There must be a million places y'all could hide up there."  
  
"Yeah," Sonic said, strapping on the rest of the orange space suit. "And I aim to search each and every one of 'em. Tails, find us someplace to dock close enough to the living areas so we can start from there. Then we'll work our way down from there. Hazard and Shadow are up here too, and if they are they must be around there."  
  
Just then from a window, someone was utilizing their new telescopic sight to zoom in on the unwanted guests. The person takes a device from their pocket and holds it up to a nearly invisible wire in their hand. Two decks down a certain monster feels the program activate and his mind go completely blank. He rushes to an emergency airlock and thrusts himself out.  
  
"Almost there guys, I just gotta--whoa!" Tails cried as the ship pitched to the side.  
  
The ship span in space from the force of whatever had hit it. The artificial gravity deactivated and left the three passengers dazed. Sonic shook his head a bit and then took a look out of one of the portals on the right side of the shuttle. Outside he saw a creature not of Mobius. It looked like a metallic dragon with glowing red wings. It was small as dragons go and somewhat familiar, but now wasn't the time to remember anything.  
  
"Tails! Get us outta here," Sonic yelled.  
  
The fox propelled himself back to his pilot seat and drove the ship downward beneath one of ARK's satellite dishes. Just as the craft sped away a ball of green light shot out from the red creature flying after them and impacted on the side of the dish.  
  
The ship buckled again as Tails pushed the engines as fast as they would go. All the while, Bunnie was scanning the section of ARK they were in for a docking port. More and more of the green light orbs flew out and around the ship. Tails flew around the side of ARK, past the dark side of the colony and back into the sun. He hoped that the sun would blind it without the shielding that they had over all of the windows. After about three minutes of continuous flying, he figured that it was over.  
  
"Alright guys, I think we can relax now," he said.  
  
Sonic looked a bit pale as he took a look out of the window. "Uh, Tails. You might wanna take a look at this."  
  
Tails switched the main viewer over to the rear camera. On the screen was the red creature that had chased them into the sun. It wasn't following anymore, not because it couldn't see them, but because now it didn't need to use point blank energy orbs to kill them. An instant later a pinprick of a laser blew through their ship and an explosion rocked them out of flight. One half of the ship was on fire and the other was already molten slag. The thing spiraled for a few seconds before it crashed into the side of ARK's asteroid layer.  
  
The creature pulled its armored hand up to its face and said," This is Whelpmon RM (Ragnarok Mode). I have terminated the intruding vessel."  
  
"Good, come back ASAP, I have another job for you," a rasping voice said on the other end.  
  
"Understood." With that, Whelpmon opened his wings again and jetted off toward an airlock.  
  
But down on the surface of the asteroid that surrounded that part of ARK, figures were moving. They were about a half mile from the crash site and steadily moving toward one of the Eclipse Cannon's access routes.  
  
"Tails, you and Bunnie alright over there," Sonic asked on the radio in his helmet.  
  
"Just fine, sugah hog," Bunnie answered. "Tails is a little sick at the moment though. He got tossed around a whole lot when we jumped ship. Hard as heck to pilot this thing."  
  
"Just a few more miles and we can get inside the colony."  
  
The Cyclone flew along the edge of the asteroid jerking every now and then, safe in it's protective Water shield that produced oxygen, as Sonic moon jumped from cliff to cliff. His speed all but nullified by the loss of gravity, which was barely there thanks to them being so far from the artificial force inside the colony.  
  
'Soon enough, Sal. Soon I'll pay back that wannabe Hazard back for what she's done.' __________________________________________________  
  
Shract!  
  
"Waahh!" Shadow yelled as he leapt away from the bolt of electricity.  
  
The badniks flew in tight formation, trying to cut the hedgehog off wherever he went. As soon as he would move to one spot a robot would zip up nearly faster than could be seen and fire off a short burst of electricity that would scorch the ground he occupied a second ago. This had been going on for nearly a half-hour and Shadow's progress through the Zone hadn't been proceeding well. Shadow leapt out of the way of another burst and was zapped by another. The energy of twenty power rings that he'd collected in the Zone left him and he was tossed away. Sputtering a bit from the shock he was up and moving again, the injury already healed. He moved in a figure eight, running instead of skating.  
  
'There's got to be some way of beating these things without losing any ring energy. I've already lost around twenty, I'll need the other forty I have to get into the Chaos dimension. So how am I going to get rid of these stupid robots?' He hopped up off of a wall and tried to attack one of the badniks, but it zipped away from his golden hued spin and slammed into another robot. Taking advantage of the situation, the black hedgehog jumped down on the fallen robots and destroyed them. 'Heh, these simple machine's self preservation programs override their sensors. This is gonna be too easy.'  
  
The other two flew faster than before, zipping from place to place, trying to zap their target before he could destroy them. Shadow started skating closer and closer to a large crystal nearby, going in circles. Finally he jumped behind the crystal and disappeared from their sensors. The badniks drifted together slowly sweeping the room for any life signs.  
  
"Boo!"  
  
Both of the small robots ran into each other after detecting something so close to their auditory sensors. As they hit the floor, Shadow ran them over in a spin- dash.  
  
'Hmph, way too easy.' Shadow thought as he skated further down the corridor.  
  
As he ran further along, he thought more and more of the simple Whelpmon and manipulative Hazard. It had been nearly ten months since he'd started hopping Zones, always just missing the portal to the Chaos dimension. He was immortal, but not without his limits. He missed the only friends he had. To them he had been gone for two hours, but on Little Planet time passed faster.  
  
'Perhaps they've rubbed off on me a bit.' Shadow thought. 'I already have an idea what Hazard is planning, she can't do too much harm with me around. But what about that maniacal robot? What was he doing with that Mobian in his lab? Oh well, here comes the Portal. Maybe this time I'll make it.'  
  
Shadow pushed on ahead and past a sign which started spinning thanks to the wind he'd kicked up upon passing. He flipped into the air above it and into a ring warp. The world seemed to invert on itself as far as Shadow was concerned. Everything became neon and stars until the world span out of control and let him land on solid ground.  
  
Things began to make a bit of sense again. He stood in an air field, or at least it seemed to be one. The grass waved in tandem with the breeze coming off the ocean than seemed to go on forever beyond the east horizon. To the west was a checkerboard of shifting orbs and colors, beyond it was a folded sky that span and turned with crystals, bumpers, and nonsensical pictures. Instead of choosing any of those routes, the black hedgehog opted to walk north.  
  
He passed a pole which slowly span. A bell inside went off twice and a fanfare echoed through the place, a long winding road of multicolored mayhem.  
  
Only one coherent phrase could be understood by him beneath the din of horns and the like: "Collect 25 Rings..."  
  
Shadow dashed off into the Special Zone at a jog and followed the trails of rings, easily avoiding the robots that floated past. 23, 24, 25... Whoa! The black hedgehog's heart raced as he hopped over the ring of deadly mace-shaped robots. He barely avoided running into them. Sure it might only sting to have them hit him, but the rings would be lost. The path curved around the corner to the left twice before the presence of the Zone's spirit or whatever it was that guided him was felt again. He ran along to keep the pace and then increased it by starting to skate.  
  
"Good," the mysterious one said as it drained the rings from Shadow. "Collect 50 Rings..."  
  
The path dipped suddenly and twisted to the right sharply. Shadow skimmed the wall and ground the edge, making sparks appear and then burst off into nothing. He plucked rings from along the sides and in the air, hopping away from the semicircles of robots that lined the floor periodically. Soon enough Shadow possessed more than sixty rings. He felt it safe to run along the floor and start following the ring trails again. Swerve along the ground from side to side, run up on the walls, and finally the path led to having to dash along the path that curved overhead and finally back down to earth. He nearly had a heart attack at the sight of the ring flying at him at 50 mph. He barely cleared the obstacle in time before another came up and clipped his right foot.  
  
He didn't lose any rings but it scared the crap out of him. Then came the insanity. Shadow accelerated to Mach one to keep up with the presence as it collected the rings from him.  
  
"Great! Collect 75 rings!" 'S-seventy five...rings?' Shadow thought as the road once again dipped down.  
  
The corridor became almost completely impassible as robots swarmed down it. Each one whizzed past Shadow at horrifyingly fast speeds. If he hadn't tipped his head to the side once, one would have taken it right off. (He may be immortal, but anyone can be killed in a Zone. Just as in the game.) Tired of hopping from wall to wall and grabbing only a handful of rings in the process of dodging the obstructions, Shadow hopped into the air and curled himself into a ball. Using his shoes in conjunction with the ancient light he'd collected a while ago, the black hedgehog utilized the only skill that was banned by his superiors decades ago when he was still learning how to control an Emerald's power. He Warp Dashed forward through the Zone's constrictive reality and into the Chaos dimension itself. It was only for a flash, but that was enough. Shadow came back from that incredible trip exhausted and panting. He kneeled on the floor of the Zone and smirked. He felt it just before it happened.  
  
A sphere of lightning formed around his body for a second and every ring that he'd passed by while advancing to the speed of light for less than a second, more than two hundred rings swept around him and began absorbing themselves into him. When his inertia and the Light finally failed him the shield was gone. But he had more than enough rings.  
  
All three of the mysterious beings in the Zone looked down upon him as they tore a rip in the reality around the end of the corridor. Everything glowed white with an incredible aura as he was finally rewarded for his months of effort. As if by a switch, the light was all but gone... and so was the Zone. Yet, why did gravity still remain? Shadow fell through the loose world of stars and void as he had done the last time when he fell through the atmosphere of Mobius. Only this time, he had no energy and no Emerald to warp himself somewhere safe.  
  
"He is a strong one, no?"  
  
"Very talented, indeed. He will serve our purpose well."  
  
"Maybe even as well as young Prower."  
  
"Yes. But every Yin must have it's Yang..."  
  
"Hmm...Perhaps Kintobor would do?"  
  
'What?' Shadow thought. He turned his head sharply and saw only a glimpse of the awesome beings that had control over the very laws of nature. The three of them were beyond his understanding, yet even the echidna who stood among them, his image was almost beyond his archaic way of thought. Bound only in one way, as all worlds are infinitely bound. Some closer, some farther...yet there it was if you knew where to look. Shadow was even bound in this way, yet didn't really know it.  
  
"Indeed," Said the echidna as Shadow lapsed into unconsciousness. " Maybe...If he can save himself."  
  
Chapter 13  
  
"There, that's it!" Hazard exclaimed as Whelpmon finished his assigned task. "Now hurry on back before—"  
  
Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder. About to have a heart attack, she wheeled around and scowled.  
  
"You know you shouldn't do that," Hazard said as Shadow peeled the spacesuit off of himself. "I could have been armed or something."  
  
"Yet you still wouldn't have shot me," the hedgehog said calmly as he took the helmet off. "You still need me. And besides, you'd never get your hands on this." He pulled the orange time stone from his side pouch. The halfling's eyes lit up upon seeing that he had gone out of his way to find the 'right' color for her. He tossed the girl the stone and turned to walk away. "Meet me in the lab along with the others in ten minutes. Oh yeah and before I forget, Hazard...it's nice to see you again."  
  
After he left, Hazard was left puzzled. 'What was that all about? He's only been gone for five hours.' **********************  
  
Sonic tossed away the last part of his suit, that being the boots, and looked over at his friends. Tails was used to this atmosphere, but for her part Bunnie hadn't been in many Zones and Sonic didn't know what to do about her. The more people that were with him, the more chance Shadow and Hazard had to use his friends against him. So if they showed up in a dangerous situation, who knows what could happen.  
  
He looked out into the dark and desolate concourses of the place that had been inadvertently turned into a Zone. Rings floated about in paths that led to nowhere. Relays from the Cannon had spilled out into this area. Live wires and suspension fluid were everywhere. Nothing was as it should have been. Water manes dripped with rustcicles hanging down to the floor from the twenty some-odd feet ceiling above, obviously from years of neglect. Almost no lighting existed in this ghost city of a colony and most definitely no life.  
  
"Whatcha thinkin' 'bout Sugah-hog," Bunnie asked, concerned.  
  
"Nothing," Sonic said, looking down into the abyss-like Zone. "Hey, Tails. You got any way for us to get into the lab section of this place?"  
  
The young fox looked up from the console in his mech and stated," Yes and no. I've got the long way around that would take the better part of the day or..."  
  
"Or?" Bunnie repeated, peering over his shoulder to get a look at what he was planning.  
  
"You're not gonna like it. It's fast, dangerous, and takes a lot of cajones just to try and pull it off."  
  
Sonic smirked and turned back to look at his friend. "What's not to like about it?" __________________________________  
  
Eggrobo was once again setting up the lab for the very last treatment. All the others had gone along swimmingly. No snags or setbacks whatsoever. Hazard's body was in perfect shape and condition, even when they found out she was part human. Speaking of the halfling, she was presently undressing to jump in the regeneration tank. Shadow hopped up on the command console platform and smirked. The whole thing was working out according to plan. Whelpmon sat nearby, next to the computer up-link he used to write and code the AI program which they needed to initiate on Hazard.  
  
"Now remember what the deal was robot," Hazard snapped as she disconnected the life support device from he back. "Don't screw this up and I'll give you the data you're looking for. I end up with anything out of place and I'll do something a lot worse than anything Shadow had cooked up for you."  
  
'What deal?' Shadow thought as he eyed the robot suspiciously. 'Something went on here when I wasn't around. And I aim to find out what. I'll check out the security cameras later though.'  
  
"Whelpmon..."She said just before she hopped in the tank. He gave her a knowing look and resumed typing.  
  
"Alright, let's do it," Shadow said as he began the treatment.  
  
Almost a minute later in the Lost Colony Zone...  
  
"Alright, Tails," Bunnie yelled. "How did I let y'all talk me into this? Its crazy!"  
  
The rabbit/cyborg used her foot jets to dart between bullets and under bolts of electricity. You see, Tails had gotten the plan to go through the colony's energy matrix as a shortcut to the other side of the colony. Of course he'd been right about it being dangerous. The entire place was no more than a huge gyro and columns of twisting turbines that had electricity flowing through each one. The gravity inducing device had a maintenance channel that went right to the laboratory section of the space colony. Presently Sonic and co. were rushing to get there.  
  
"But it's fun," Sonic exclaimed, hopping over the watery tendril of a Chaos Drone. He whipped around and watched as a bolt of lightning arced through the creature's head and over his shoulder. His blue fur stood up, being so close to pure energy. Seeing this development, Sonic tore after Bunnie and Tails. "Okay, new plan: We go as fast as possible and make sure we don't get hit by lightning."  
  
"Maybe a shorter version would be bettah," Bunnie said. "How 'bout: RUN LIKE HELL!!!"  
  
In a few minutes time of nearly getting blown to electrified oblivion, the party found themselves coming up on the center of the colossal chamber that the power matrix was. It was a huge pit of a place, a reverse dome really. And in this shining dome was where the most lightning strikes were found. Sonic deftly dodged away from the blast of another security robot. He ran up on it and kicked it's joints backward before tackling it into the down and sliding it into the bowl. As it slid down, the lightning centralized on it. Every streak of white tinged energy fried the robot to slag as it slid into the abyss.  
  
"That ain't good," Tails said, stating the obvious. "How are we all gonna make it to the other side?" Sonic pulled a Power Ring out of his pack and looked out into the bowl, trying to put his physics lessons to good use. "You two both stay in the Cyclone while you fly across. Once I jump off the edge, count to ten and gun it to the other end."  
  
"But Sonic-"  
  
"Don't ask me any questions, Tails! Just do it..."  
  
He sat back in his seat for a second, absorbing the info. Sonic only acted serious in the face of danger when there was a great chance he'd be killed. A chance that he'd never come back from whatever perilous stunt he'd try to pull off.  
  
"Tell Sally that...well I guess you already know," Sonic said as he dashed off the side. ____________________________________  
  
"Process at 50% and rising..." Whelpmon droned on as the program continued.  
  
Shadow grasped onto the bracelet he'd lost in space after the battle with the prototype. He watched in awe as Hazard was bathed in light for the last time. Finally he could put the Professor behind him and live his own life. When all was said and done, he'd go off and find something worthwhile. Who knows, maybe he'd become an even bigger thorn in Eggman's side than Sonic was already.  
  
Everything was going smoothly. All systems were go and the Time Stone was calling out to it's brothers for strength it didn't have. The streaks of multicolored light went through the walls and out into nowhere and beyond. Just before Whelpmon announced that the process was complete however, something horrible happened. The lights went out as well as everything electronic on the laboratory deck. Shadow panicked for a second before the auxiliary power came back on. Hazard, who a minute ago was writhing around in the tank with a red grid on her body, was now still, sinking to the bottom of the tank.  
  
The hedgehog hopped over the command console and dashed up to the side of the tube. He banged on the side, hoping that the little megalomaniac within would hear him.  
  
"Stand back," Eggrobo commanded as he hefted up his arm blaster. Shadow stepped away as the robot targeted the front panel of the tube on minimal setting. Still, that was enough to melt away the Plexiglas.  
  
Suspension fluid sloshed all over the floor as Hazard fell out onto her face. Shadow hesitantly picked her up and laid her against the command platform. The orange halfling looked like a drowned rat. Her hair was plastered to the back of her head by the slimy fluid, as well as the shirt and shorts she'd worn to protect what human dignity had cropped up during the last couple of treatments. Her mouth hung open revealing she still had a forked tongue and very sharp eye-teeth.  
  
"In the next forty seconds I want a report on what the hell just did this," Shadow said in his old, 'I'm calm, but I just might kill you' tone.  
  
"Ugh..."  
  
Hazard had finally come to. Looking around at her surroundings and was surprised to be somewhere she was never permitted to go on any other basis. That's about when she saw him leaning over her. "Shadow..." She croaked in a softer voice than usual. "Is that you?"  
  
The black hedgehog was a bit confused. "What are you talking about? 'Is it me?' Of course! Who else would I be, Haz-"  
  
Hazard grabbed him and hugged him tightly to her, stroking the crooked spines on his back. "Oh God!" She sobbed. "I never thought I'd see you again! And when they came through the door like that I felt this pain in my chest and-"  
  
Shadow took the weeping dragon-half by the shoulders and held her away from him for a second. "Hazard? What are you talking about? I thought I'd never say this, but...You're starting to scare me."  
  
She looked into the fierce red eyes of her friend and smiled brightly. The dim lights in the room made it almost impossible to miss the glowing difference in her own. One pupil was the usual animalistic red while the other was an icy shade of blue. Shadow was taken aback by the thought, but couldn't dismiss what had happened before his very eyes the whole time without him noticing it. The hair. The human DNA. Everything...  
  
"But, no...It can't be. I saw you—the blood. The gunshots! It can't be!" Shadow whispered in disbelief.  
  
"Yes, Shadow. It's me...Maria." 


	10. The downward slope to The End

Disclaimer: You know the routine. What's mine is mine. What's their's is their's. So now, you STILL can't sue me!  
  
Chapter 14  
  
"It is unlikely that I would be able to finish this experiment. But if you are watching this recording, it can only mean that everything has gone according to plan. Maria, I have given you a second chance at life. The life I couldn't give you when I was alive myself. Able to live on your own without drugs or anything else. Typical that after all of these years, we hadn't found a cure for your disease. That you and thousands of other children couldn't survive in any normal environment without harsh antibiotics and such. When I saw your cold, dead corpse on that table, with that bullet wound right where your heart used to be, it tore me apart. I then created something I can never atone for. But if this message still exists then I already have. If only I could see you now. Half mobian and breathing again... If you are there too Shadow, I'm very proud of what you've become and whatever you'll continue to do. Goodbye my loved ones that I'll never live to see. Goodbye Shadow. Goodbye Maria. Goodbye Julian. And most of all...Goodbye Varunamon. I'll never forget you all."  
  
The audio message was less that two minutes long. But it told of a story that was a lot longer. Even the heartless Eggrobo felt a for a nanosecond very sorrowful.  
  
"This is impossible," Shadow said. "Its blasphemous science thought up by a madman." He eyed the creature who held Maria's eyes and thoughts warily. "Its just not right. I should have refused this from the beginning. I should have cast you out into space the second you suggested it." "But Shadow-"Hazard/Maria said.  
  
"Don't. Speak. To. Me." The hedgehog said icily. "You're nothing but an illusion. A poor excuse for a clone of the person I used to know! How could I have not seen it? The Chaos Emeralds and the Supers as the base, then the Power Stone from Carnival Island, the Power Rings we used from around the ARK to make the Chaos Ring, the Master Emerald shard to halt the growth and transformation effect of the Stone and the Ring, the Precious Stone to enhance your ability to access the Chaos dimension and the Time Stone... You used the Time Stone to pluck Maria's consciousness away just as soon as she died."  
  
He looked pained, unable to express his anger and rage. He almost wished that he hadn't fixed the Cannon to fuse and never fire again. The Super Emerald could have powered it twice over for a firestorm of blasts so that he could lay waste to Mobius. Why not just crash the hulking Colony into the damn planet now? Tear a sore in the Earth as big as the one on his psyche that had been reopened.  
  
"Get out of here..." Shadow said in a low monotone voice.  
  
Hazard and the others looked on, rushing to walk out as the hedgehog gripped his Emerald and looked upon the room. A gleam of madness was in his eyes as he absorbed the energy in the air, the electricity in the wires and cables, the heat, and finally his own emotions. He was the nucleus now of a large popping molecule of electricity that jumped and crackled along his frame. The Light Speed attack smashed all around the lab, laying waste to all. Everything was destroyed in under an hour, from the computer equipment all the way down to the pipes that pumped in suspension fluid. Shadow kicked and thrashed and spin dashed the whole laboratory, trying to sate the fury in his soul. But before the demon in his mind tired, his body gave way. His reveling was cut short when he finally twisted the steel framework of the chaos siphon in upon itself. He was spent, not totally physically, for he could go without sleep for a month if need be. His mind had run out of gas. No feasible physical reaction could ever let Shadow make the nightmare end.  
  
"It's always you," the black hedgehog said as he turned to look over his shoulder. "I couldn't sleep without thinking of you. I couldn't look at an Emerald without remembering why I'd been exposed to them in the first place: you. And now that you've come back...I don't even know what to do."  
  
Hazard blinked away the tears from the corners of her eyes, her sight blurred slightly. "Do what you feel, Shadow. Kill me. Curse me. Kiss me. Say something. Just don't shut down on me. I may have a different body but it's still me in here. Shadow, we've always been best friends. From the second we met when you bumped into me on the observation deck looking down on Mobuis, we've always been close. And now that I've been given another chance you don't want anything to do with me?" The hedgehog was still silent. "Dammit, say something! Call me 'Hazard' if you want to. Do whatever you want to, just say something!  
  
Shadow turned around and strolled over right in front of the halfling that until an hour ago had been Hazard. He looked her in the eyes and sighed slightly, preparing to do what he felt. "It's the most wrong thing in the world that's ever occurred. It's shocking and unprecedented, but... you do know that I'll have to adjust to being taller than you?" He took the girl's hand. "Of course, we are going to have to find you something better to wear. Black just doesn't suit you."  
  
"Suits me just fine," Maria whispered to nobody as they exited the room. "By the way, Shadow, thanks for keeping your promise..."  
  
45 minutes later...  
  
"Oookkaayyy..." Maria said as Shadow finished his tale. "I don't believe that Grandpa could be capable of something like that. But then again."  
  
"Almost destroyed all of Mobius because of his and my own lust for revenge," Shadow said.  
  
They had found what little clothing that Maria had in her closet before the accident that day. She donned a simple little blue sun dress that she swore she was too little to wear about a day ago when she was human.(In her mind it had been a day) She still kept the Scorchers and the arm/knee pads on, even though they weren't needed.  
  
"Well that shouldn't be a problem anymore, right? Now that I'm back I guess you don't really have any reason to want any kind of revenge or anything like that. But what happens now?"  
  
"We could go back down to Mobius later on," the hedgehog suggested. "You always told me you wanted to go. See the world in all it's glory."  
  
Maria looked a bit apprehensive at first and then looked out of the reinforced window towards the planet. Three raking claw marks still seemingly scarring the world. She felt around the rough troughs and looked at her hands, now claws instead of regular human digits. Wondering what kind of creature she had become. Sure she was part human, but also something else. What would anyone she met back on Mobius think about her if they saw the freak she had become?  
  
'Shadow would never say anything,' she thought. 'He's my friend. But what if there are side effects? What if I end up becoming like whatever did these?'  
  
"So what do you say?"  
  
Maria took one last fleeting look at her reflection in the glass and smiled. "Alright. Let's do it."  
  
Sonic panted heavily, leaning against the side of the Cyclone for support. In the middle of his stunt to outrun the electricity in the core, the whole generator system shut down. His plan was to run into the bowl with his power ring and try and create a circuit by absorbing the power through the negatively charged ring. The natural energy boost would have allowed him to propel himself to the other side of the maw where his friends were waiting. Problem: In the middle of absorbing the energy boost, Sonic was cut off and had to run along the circumference of the bowl to avoid sliding down the sleek walls of the bowl into the abyss.  
  
It took him a while to build up the momentum needed to run up on the rim and grind his way off. A particularly tiring affair to say the least.  
  
"Uh, Sonic," Tails asked, leaning over the side of his craft. "Are you gonna be alright?"  
  
Sonic took a very deep breath, shuddered, and hit the floor. "Does it 'pant' look 'huff' like I'll be 'koff' okay, 'wheeze' Tails?"  
  
"Can you move right now, Sugah-hog," Bunnie asked sheepishly. "No."  
  
"Then I guess you won't be able to do anything when I tell you that we could have saved you all that trouble," Tails exclaimed.  
  
Sonic, very weakly, pulled his head up off the ground. "W-what?"  
  
"We kinda could have knocked out the faulty generator making those lightning bolts..."  
  
Eye twitching. "What?"  
  
"And we kinda could have taken a second right in the Lost Colony and went straight to the living areas."  
  
Nerves popping. "What!?"  
  
"And we kinda could have gotten to Aunt Sally first if we took that way too. I 'heh, heh' kinda found a layout on the main computer. I think we can just get a floating platform to take us there too. Isn't that funny...heh, heh, heh...oh crud."  
  
"TAILS!!!"  
  
Above them in the infamous ARK weapons lab something heinous was going on. In the whole process of Hazard's 'accident', nobody had really given a thought to what had happened to the two mechanized members of the team. After the two organisms had walked off, Whelpmon felt a sudden jolt to the back of his skull and then he was here. That's when all the pain started. Behind a console with dimmed glass and legions of machines spinning around him, Eggrobo sat typing away. With each stab of the Enter key, the little digimon felt another jolt of pain shoot through his body. With each passing second he was being dissected further. Somehow taken apart right down the very kernel of his being.  
  
What the hell was that strange tug on the back of his mind though? It was sifting through all of the bits and pieces of his memory... That's it! Memory! The robot had somehow found a way to hack his data! And if he could be hacked, that meant his systems were repaired. But without the digivice he'd had, it was impossible to bring everything together and evolve again.  
  
"Evolve? Query: Explain term: evolve?"  
  
What?  
  
"Searching... Memory kernel +70A3R: Digivolution. Clarify."  
  
No! Not that!  
  
"Comply or this unit will scramble the data until I have a viable answer. Answer Unit's Query."  
  
If I tell you - - you'll...  
  
"Comply!"  
  
I won't!  
  
"Then face termination, stubborn unit."  
  
Sonic hated this part of the adventure. Yes he knew it would happen. It was inevitable. Every time he paid a visit to somewhere in space everything would lag for a while. He knew that whenever he thought it was over, something new would happen and it would escalate to nearly global proportions. It never failed. The Death Egg, the Egg Carrier, Chaos, his last visit to the ARK. He knew that if Hazard had Shadow on her side then it would be that much harder.  
  
"Why does this always happen to me," he said to nobody. "Why couldn't I have gone with the whole damsel in distress kick like the others? Why me?"  
  
"Do you think we'll really need this much stuff," Maria asked. "It's not like we eat a lot."  
  
"It's called being prepared." Shadow hefted the thirty pound duffel onto his back. "I'm going to check on Whelpmon before we leave. Find out if he's coming with us."  
  
"Go ahead, I need some time to figure this out a second," the halfling muttered, trying to tune herself to the bizarre green device she'd been carrying for some reason. As soon as the black hedgehog left the room, she was fully absorbed in the screen, toying with the options.  
  
For some reason, the human in Hazard's body had been unaware of anything she'd done before the treatment. So there was no way for her to know how to hone her senses and smell the person stalking up behind her. Almost no way for her to hear them breathing. And almost no way to get away from what would become a watershed in her new life.  
  
Before anything could even be said, Sonic quickly snatched up the halfling's right hand and twisted it around her back. He clasped his hand down over her mouth to keep her from screaming. Forcing her to relinquish the device she stole from him weeks ago he wrenched her arm almost to the breaking point. Sal's martial arts tutoring seemed to be good for something finally. Sonic shoved her up against the observation window headfirst and got ready to beat a hasty retreat. "That was a bit too easy," Sonic said glumly to himself, hoping against what he knew was probably gonna happen.  
  
Hazard shakily stood up again. One hand on the wall, the other on her head. Steam trailed from her nostrils and her eyes glowed dangerously. Sonic had seen this before when Dulcy had lost her temper once. The signs of when you know a dragon is mad...real mad.  
  
"Too easy," the girl yelled. Waves of heat seemed to radiate off of her body where skin was showing. "Too easy, you annoying rodent?!"  
  
"I couldn't find Whelpmon for some reason and the robot is missing as well," Shadow said upon strolling back in. "Something strange is going on around here–You!!!" The accusation echoed out and Sonic took off running with his prize in hand. "What the hell is 'he' doing here?"  
  
Across the room the halfling screamed at the top of her lungs, banging on the side of her head. "Forget the damn rodent, Shadow," she yelled. "Help me! Make it stop!"  
  
Shadow eyed his friend warily. "Make what stop, Maria?" The girl turned her dead serious gaze on the black hedgehog and snarled. "The simpering voice in my head you idiot! It keeps calling out!! Screaming at me!! At you!" She suddenly closed her eyes and started wringing her hands. "And for God's sake, could you stop mixing me up with that dead bitch already!"  
  
And with that statement, it hit him. With that last little treatment and everything that had gone on afterward, he had forgotten about one person. The one person who had gotten him into all of this in the first place. The one person he had forsaken. It was her fighting with Maria in that body. It was Hazard.  
  
Before he could find a way to calm her down alarms began sounding all over the colony. A deafening amount of noise kicked up from all sides as Eggrobo clunked in with less mechanical movement than Shadow had seen him ever manage.  
  
"Something has happened," the robot said in a calm voice just above the din of the alarms.  
  
'Well that's obvious,' Shadow thought. "Well?"  
  
"As per your instructions, I have made a formal report on the power failure during Hazard's last treatment." The automaton took no notice of the raving orange heap writhing in a corner nearby as he continued. As if it were to be expected. "Tampering in the electrical systems by intruders on the colony resulted in a power spike that overloaded and deactivated power in the lab. The accident had a fractal effect on Hazard's psyche. Instead of a smooth integration into her mind, a merge of ideas and memories to make another personality. Hazard is now dealing more with an overwrite. Her other personality is fighting with the new one for dominance."  
  
Shadow vaguely remembered how his own personality was overwritten to make way for the subroutine of a soldier. An unstoppable weapon of mass destruction instead of a true person. He had a sense of what was happening. "What if neither side can win," he asked.  
  
"Then the mind will recede. Both personalities will cease to exist if neither one can find a route to victory. The only true death for organisms like yourselves is that of the mind."  
  
On that note Maria, who was in charge of the body for that brief moment of clarity ran off into the hallway. To disappear somewhere in the colony. Shadow did not choose to go after her and console her as he would have if not for one factor. One vital factor that hadn't resolved the last time this happened.  
  
"All of the doors and chambers of the colony are wide open, correct," the black hedgehog asked.  
  
"Everything that is not essential, yes," the badnik said.  
  
"Good..."  
  
In the center of the colony, around the living areas one of the doors gave way. Something quickly slid past the open chamber and into the cracks of the wall and ceiling. The creature gave a bellowing sound that was like that of a raging river heard from a cave and was gone. Around the corner, Princess Sally Acorn shivered in fear.  
  
Chapter 15  
  
Sonic was elated, he had gotten his device back and caused a good amount of chaos in the process. At the moment he was jogging at a sedate thirty MPH on his way to the rendezvous point that Tails, Bunnie, and he had agreed on not long before. Everything was going according to plan. Right up until the doors around him began to shut. Strange, Tails' program was made so that the doors on the whole station would have been open for at least an hour. The hedgehog increased his speed and dodged through the closing doorways.  
  
The hallways were soon becoming narrower and narrower and then leading upwards. Away from his destination. The blue hero had the sneaking suspicion that he was being herded. He went with the flow and followed the passages with his guard fully up. Soon enough he had come to a large solid looking door made of steel with the Project: Shadow warning symbol on it. The thick door behind him closed and Sonic was trapped in a five by five space between the doors.  
  
'Not this again,' Sonic thought as he had a flashback of Eggman's Sky Fortress deathtrap.  
  
A small panel on the wall opened up to reveal a screen with an ID panel and a video screen. The screen suddenly flickered to life and Sonic saw the back of a spiny red and black spackled head looking out onto what looked like the opposite end of the door. His arms were folded behind his back. The black hedgehog also had a screen beside him with Sonic on it.  
  
"You are quite the reckless one blue hedgehog," Shadow said. There was something different, or rather familiar about his voice. It was that same hollow tone he used to speak in before the accident months prior. "You came here with a simple plan and executed it without thought to the consequences. You pathetic little tool." Shadow shook his head slowly and sighed. "How did it feel, Sonic?"  
  
The confused blue hedgehog raised his eyebrow. "How did what feel, man?"  
  
Shadow chuckled grimly and then exploded in a fountain or mirth that didn't reassure Sonic that he was in any sort of good mood. "Why being a monster of course."  
  
"Say what!"  
  
Shadow made a sound that was halfway between a laugh and a sob. "You didn't exactly talk to the person whose head you slammed into a wall a few moments ago did you, Sonic? You didn't give them half a chance...you just attacked. An action worthy of...well, me."  
  
Sonic looked angrily at Shadow's back through the screen and yelled," She stole my Chaos digivice from me and kidnaped one of my friends. So excuse me if I didn't want someone as dangerous as that to 'hit me back'. Besides, your girl Hazard is the monster, going to other people's homes and attacking them for their property."  
  
"Indeed. But the person you attacked back there wasn't just Hazard, Sonic. It was Maria. I could sit here giving you the third degree for hurting her like that. For causing the power outage which effects are killing her. To explain how this is possible. But I won't, no." The black hedgehog looked back at the camera and smiled evilly.  
  
KRA-DOOM!!  
  
Shadow's arms tore through the half foot thick alloy and grasped onto Sonic's shoulders. With more strength than Sonic thought he possessed in his lean body, Shadow ripped him through the tear and tossed him across the room that he'd been sent to death from by Eggman so long ago. He hit the wall with a shuddering thud and fell to the floor below.  
  
"I'm going to do what I should have done long ago," Shadow said. "What I was designed to do. I'm going to kill you and everyone and everything you love. I'm going to kill and kill just like Hazard wanted and I'll finally 'make everyone happy' like Maria said, especially myself. I'll make them happy by spreading a cloud of bloodshed across the Earth and give them peace in the arms of death. And then only I shall be left standing tall. Only I. Shadow...the Ultimate Life-form."  
  
Sonic listened to the violent sermon preached by the sadistic killer he had beaten before and shuddered. 'This is not cool.'  
  
Every hall in the now dim space colony looked the same. There was no distinguishing the plain human designed pathways from the next one. Every survival trick one learned for natural environs like deserts and pitch black forests did nothing for one here. No way to make a land mark, no way to find north or south.  
  
'I mind as well admit it,' she thought. 'I'm lost.'  
  
Sally sat down leaning back against a wall to take a breather. The thing that confronted her when the lights went off was like something out of a child's nightmare. A huge long creature with glittering green eyes and chitinous armor. For a girl who had dealt with monsters on a daily basis for some odd years, the princess couldn't remember any of Robotnik's badniks being that menacing. The mad doctor always kept small or functional with absolutely no imagination. He could never have built something like that, but if this wasn't one of his bases then where was she? The last thing she remembered before waking up in that bizarre robot's lab was running from the monster that had taken down Tails and Bunnie.  
  
Besides, the creature that had been hunting her for a while now was somewhat familiar to her. Almost as if she knew what it wanted. The look in the monster's eyes before it first attacked was sorrowful, but then somehow turned to anger. A bad feeling settled down in Sally's insides as she remembered the outrageous stories that Sonic had told her about over the years. The one in particular she had taken part in. Their first visit to Station Square. A life altering experience to say the least.  
  
A sound interrupted her thoughts, from close by. Down the corridor to the right where she had come from...the creature.  
  
Sally stood up and edged her way down the hall. If she could get a glimpse of what it was, maybe she could find a way to communicate with it. Or better yet, kill it. The shuffling sound came closer and closer with each passing second. Just as she was rounding the corner, heart hammering in her chest, Sally jumped out to face her pursuer.  
  
"AAAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!"  
  
THUD!  
  
"Oops," Sal said timidly. "Sorry. Are you, uh, okay Bunnie?"  
  
The frightened cyborg had damn near fainted and was flat on her back trying not to have a heart attack. "Ah will be when I find mahself some dry britches," she joked. "Ah see ya'll healthy enough to scare the bejeezus outta people. I've been looking all over this dang space colony for you, gal."  
  
Sally blanched, her eyes going wide as saucers. "Space colony," she said in a trembling voice.  
  
"Ya'll didn't know?"  
  
"They kept me under for the better part of the past week for some reason. That robot wanted something from me..."  
  
Bunnie grabbed her friend's arm and started pulling her in the direction she came from. "Well, it's nice to see that bein' kidnaped didn't stunt your natural curiosity, Sal-gal. But right now we gotta meet back with Sonic and Tails before Sonic's dark twin and his girlfriend decide they want to get rid of all their problems at once."  
  
As they started down the hall at a sedate pace, Sally looked over at Bunnie and asked," How did you manage to find me in here? I must have ran for at least a mile before I decided to take a rest."  
  
"Why were you running?"  
  
GGGGGGGRRRRRRRRUUUUULLLLLL!!!!  
  
Sally looked back and then started running again with her friend in tow. "That's why! Run for it!"  
  
His footfalls were soundless, like a ghost's. His eyes were clear yet held an air of age and experience. The dark brown fur almost blended in with the dark part of the colony that broken only by the dozens of multicolored beads he wore on his head. The creature walked unnoticed up to the sufferer who was the product of an anomaly he scarcely comprehended. He felt the pain and anguish enveloping the soul like a steadily shrinking bubble. Soon enough that bubble would crush the person inside, sending them beyond all help. He had work to do before that happened.  
  
He put a hand on their shoulder and began to speak in a language not heard on Mobius for centuries. Only the agents of the three know how to speak it. Giving them partial command over reality itself, the language allowed them to open the doors to other times, places, and then push through. Yet the language was about only one thing and this agent always knew that: probability. If it can be done with the slightest odds of occurrence no matter how little, it could be done now in his presence.  
  
Only once before had he chosen to use this ability given to him so long ago. To save his own great grandson from complete destruction, indeed so he could go on to save them all later that day. And now came time for him to save another, only this time not from an overly powerful titan of centuries past, but from an enemy each of us has and faces on a daily basis. For this young woman had to find a way to face herself.  
  
"Incredible..."  
  
He sat floating over a ravaged field of soldiers and vehicles. Never had he seen a mind so divided as to resort to all out mental war. Tanks of Overlander design let loose with explosive volleys of shells on massive Behemoth dragons who shook off the damage and went on to deliver flying balls of napalm. Wyvern soldiers and human infantry fought on the ground as winged serpents did airborne duel with hover pods. Nothing grand scale as in the battles of the Great War, but violent enough.  
  
And on each side of the expanse sat two individuals who would re-spawn more creatures and soldiers as old ones were murdered. At this rate the fighting would go on indefinitely. Good thing he had been sent now. The old one raised his right arm and the world stopped and slowly faded away. At the flick of his left wrist the two figures on either side of the horizon began to move together. When there was less than two yards between them, he dropped down between them at ground level. As he had done before as leader of his people, he began to mediate between the two individual personalities.  
  
One side was represented by a human girl. A young teenager in a blue jump suit with blond hair. She seemed innocent enough, but had the same weight of sadness on her soul as the other one. This weight was as heavy on him as he looked on her, making his dreads weigh more than they truly did. The other side of the soul seemed to be an orange dragon who seemed to be just about the same age as the other. Horns crowned the head and swept back two feet like long thick spears. Her widespread wings had an eerie gold glow to them. This one held an air of barely contained menace, like a sensitive bomb. The slightest provocation could set it off and possibly start another war. This one wasn't as depressed or down as the other one was, but her anger hindered her almost beyond reason. Every action she seemed to take only filled her with more malice toward a single group that he too had some issues with: humans. This issue had to be resolved if this person's other side was human.  
  
He finally allowed the two minds to touch tentatively again. Just enough so they could talk, but not all out fight. The dragon spoke first.  
  
"Whore!"  
  
"Worm!"  
  
"Bitch!"  
  
"Killer!"  
  
The old one put a hand to his forehead. "Children..." he sighed.  
  
"Ape!  
  
"Idiot!"  
  
"SILENCE," he screamed. The both of them looked at each other and then at him. "That's better."  
  
"Who the hell are you," the dragon said forcefully. "And what the hell are you doing, breaking us up like that? I was winning!"  
  
The human snorted. "Excuse my darker half, she's under the delusion she can actually take something that doesn't belong to her when she knows I'll win in the end." She looked at the creature between them up and down. "However, I do share her curiosity."  
  
The echidna mystic smiled slyly. "I am known as Athair. And I am here to help."  
  
"Then you can start by helping me," the dragon said. "By killing her."  
  
"Or maybe you can kill us both," the girl said.  
  
"You see!" The dragon bristled up, looking as if she were ready to attack. "That's why I want her gone! She wants to kill us both! She was gonna send a deactivation order through my life support matrix. I knew I should have gotten rid of it before the treatment. With that done the machine would have killed me. Killed us!"  
  
Athair looked at the human with one eyebrow raised. "Why do you want to die all of the sudden? From my understanding you were just reborn."  
  
"It's her..." the human hissed. "Her memories. Her thoughts. She isn't like me, in any way."  
  
"That's the best thing about me. I–" "You're a cold blooded killer. You murder without remorse. Without feeling. With my hands."  
  
"Oh...that. Well, they were the ones who attacked first."  
  
"That doesn't give you the right to kill them!"  
  
"Well then what should I have done?"  
  
"You–We're supposed to be a higher life-form. You could have found a way to get over that insipid one sided hatred of yours."  
  
"Humans killed my creator! That's all they're good for!"  
  
"Humans killed my grandfather! Humans killed me... and I don't hate them for it."  
  
Athair laughed in spite of the moment. "I don't even know why I'm here."  
  
Both looked at him quizzically. "Wha?"  
  
"You two seem to be made for each other. You," he said pointing at the dragon," need her guidance. You've never been given the basics of what is morally right and wrong. You only know what feels right and what feels wrong. And you need her as well."  
  
The human pointed at herself. "Who me?"  
  
"Yes. After seeing most of your life from behind a glass wall, I suppose that now the challenges that await could use bravery that one like yourself rarely has without help. You are confident on your own, but I suppose that she could give you that extra courage and recklessness when needed. If you're interested."  
  
Both hastily, but also a bit mistrustful of the other decided to shake hands.(or claws or whatever) The human sweatdropped and looked over at her 'darker' half. "Do you think this could really work," she asked.  
  
The dragon stared at Athair a bit and then to her lighter side. "Well...if it doesn't I know who we could blame," she said.  
  
Both looked mischievously at the echidna and smiled. At that moment, it was hard for Athair to distinguish which one was the darker half.  
  
With that he pulled out of Hazard's mind and began the long walk home from his last job with the Walkers. Indeed, he could pass on knowing he had given guidance to one who was even more hard headed than Knuckles. And Hazard could later be called crazy for even suggesting she even saw the mysterious presence known by Tails and many others as Athair.  
  
Of course, before the healing can begin, there's always a few things left undone. A few strings someone didn't pluck and plans left unfinished. And Hazard set up a lot of strings before her epiphany came into play.  
  
"Oh my Lord," she said, breathlessly. "What the hell was wrong with me? I– Shadow... oh, no! Shadow.-"  
  
"Oh man!!! Shadow, stop!!!" Sonic dodged left and right as far as he could trying to avoid Shadow's savage attacks.  
  
The two of them had been speeding all over the colony. Dashing from one place to another. Just when Sonic would think he could actually disable his opponent, Shadow would attack even more viciously. Pressing on with more fury and power than Sonic had ever thought he could let loose with. That was before he began using his Chaos Control.  
  
His attacks obliterated entire sections of the ARK in one massive blast. Almost all of the Final Chase Zone was ripped apart, floating in space as a massive debris field waiting to fall into the Meteor Herd Zone. The world often became a blur as Sonic was caught up in his teleportations and they would find themselves fighting over a massive pit of molten lead or in a dim small lab space where a wrestling match would ensue. Indeed, he had taken Chaos Control and made it more than a phrase and used it to his advantage; never letting Sonic get the upper hand by mastering his environment for even a moment.  
  
As they now fought on the top of a very long ramp that led straight down, Sonic wondered just how long it would be before it ended. They must have ran for miles around the colony last time they dueled like this. How much more energy did Shadow have left, how much longer could he go? Sonic knew from experience that the more ring energy he collected from the Zones, the longer he could fight. But how much longer would that go on before Shadow ended it and stripped him of that advantage as well. He had to think. He had to figure out a way to deal with this...he had to run.  
  
Sonic backflipped away from one of Shadow's flaming roundhouse kicks and dashed down the ramp at top speed.  
  
'Let's see ya deal with this,' Sonic revved up past Mach 2 as his feet became a figure eight blur. He had used this technique many times before, but never like this. Never on an incline this steep. He drifted down close to the ground as low as possible and flared his nostrils to breathe easier. 'I'm losing energy fast here, I have to find a way to deal with that faker. He's warped out of his gourd. He's flipped. There's no way I can reason with him. And as much as I hate to admit it, he's a better fighter than me with that extra Chaos Control.' The hedgehog sensed a disturbance in the trail behind him and cleared the end of the ramp to start running upside down at the same speed on an opposite platform. 'I can feel him gaining on me fast. Must be using a light speed dash.'  
  
Shadow, surrounded by an intense aura of light and flame closed in on his opponent and slid in under him. With one quick movement he jumped up, planting his foot in the back of Sonic's head and grabbing his right ankle at the same time. Sonic's momentum propelled them forward with his face skidding along the ground as Shadow used him for a brake.  
  
"Well, Sonic," Shadow began," I think I'm bored with this now. Yes. Let's go somewhere and finish this."  
  
The world blurred away yet again to be replaced by a demolished room with different stones and objects Sonic had seen for years throughout his travels. Shadow tossed him across the room to land face down in front of him. He looked down on Sonic gleefully and smiled widely.  
  
"This was truly cool, Sonic. But I'm afraid we've got to say goodbye. But before that I guess I'll get rid of any measure of resistance first. Chaos Cancel!"  
  
Shadow waved his hand over the room and all color was inverted for a moment in Sonic's perceptions. The blue hedgehog felt as if every part of his body was being drained of blood and then filled with lead. The only part of him that seemed light enough to move was his left arm, the arm that was still clutching his Chaos digivice. It seemed as if all of the ring energy he had absorbed was gone and replaced with all of his delayed fatigue. Sonic had often gone Zone trolling for days on missions without a wink of sleep and come back to retreat into his hut for a week at a time. Everyone knew that his recklessness led to consequences like this, but in the name of the mission that the hero believed in so much that he would put his life and long term health on the line, nobody would question him but Sally.  
  
"Now that you're weakened and helpless..." Shadow began gathering energy for a final chaos spear to tear Sonic apart with. He loaded level after level of energy he gathered from Sonic's body into his palm ready to launch. When he could hold no more, more than 276 rings, he attacked. The spikes of rapid electricity shot forward at blinding speed like living things focused on their blue target. When Sonic just about felt the static hum of the enhanced spears he snatched up the closest stone he could find and rolled himself to block the attack with it in his hand.  
  
Neither of them really knew at that moment about the device, or about Sonic's reflex to absorb Chaos energy after his Billionth ring, or maybe the fact that the stone in his hand wasn't one of the seven Chaos. The attack struck the gem and a beeping sound was heard. Sonic felt a flood of memory go rushing through his mind from places he never knew and people he didn't really know. He saw lines flowing from the gems on the floor, from him, from Shadow, and even the air. The world was alive for a few seconds...before the pressure kicked in.  
  
Sonic floated into the air and screamed in pain as his body was wrenched back almost double. He twisted and shook his head in all directions as if having a seizure. Shadow stepped back and looked on, hoping that this was just an extra long and dramatic death. Sonic finally curled up into a ball and embraced the power...again.  
  
With a flash of light he was back. Sonic floated above the floor in all his radiant glory and yet it wasn't Sonic. This Sonic's quills were flared out wide behind him and flowed upward away from his body. This Sonic's fur was a radiant white with a gold hue. Motes of multicolored light shot out from his form like embers abandoning a flame. Shadow was amazed that Sonic could even achieve a form that felt this powerful. He felt confident he could take on Super Sonic, but this... This must have been God Sonic, by the way he overwhelmed the senses with his raw power.  
  
No, Shad. The name's Hyper Sonic. Yes, I can read thoughts. No I don't care if I killed your little friend Hazard now. And yes, I believe in payback. The holy looking hedgehog looked at the gem in his hand before chuckling a bit and absorbing it. A Time Stone. How classic. It must have warped me to a form I had that could disregard that killing blow you tried to hit me with. Let me try to repay the favor.  
  
The world shifted and changed. Shadow was suddenly on a wide platform looking at Sonic and Tails run in the opposite direction.  
  
"What?"  
  
DOOM!  
  
The black hedgehog turned around and came face to face with the third edition Eggs-o-Skeleton. The mech's Master Emerald beam was fully charged and Robotnik pulled the switch. A ridiculous beam of energy erupted from the lens and engulfed him in a blinding hot light. The world flashed again and the char broiled hedgehog landed on his face into a ring.  
  
Shadow barely got a look at his surroundings before the ground began to quake and steam started bursting out of the rocks walls beside him. Sonic instantly appeared beside him as if nothing were wrong, eating a chili dog he had materialized for himself.  
  
"W-what was-"  
  
That? Sonic answered. My past... or one of my pasts anyway. I just wanted you to see what I could do with the power of seven Super Emeralds. I could literally send you to Hell, Shad. But I'm gonna be nice. We're gonna play a game. If you can beat me in a race to the end of the Lava Reef Zone I'll let you go. When(as opposed to if) I win, we play the Bonus Round. You don't wanna play the Bonus Round, trust me. 'As if I have a reason to,' Shadow thought, getting into position.  
  
Ye of little faith, faker. Sonic got down into a crouch. Up... Over... GONE!!!  
  
One second the radiant being was there, the next he was gone. Leaving behind a vacuum trail that dragged Shadow for a few yards and deposited him in a bed of sharp quartz crystal.  
  
Get the lead out, faker, Hyper Sonic taunted in his opponent's head. My game, my rules!!!  
  
"Why is revenge always so hard for me," the black hedgehog said to the ceiling as he righted himself and tried to do something he never hoped he would have to with Sonic the hedgehog: Catch up.  
  
Chapter 16  
  
It came barreling through the halls at top speed with two figures scurrying ahead. The front of the tapered head was coming closer and closer every moment. It growled and roared each time they ducked another of it's wild swings. The wiry liquid tentacles shot through the main body and out into the chest to grasp at it's prey. By all rights and accounts they should have been dead long ago, but for some reason it wasn't happening.  
  
The red haired one looked back at the very familiar monster who was chasing her and the cyborg. It was reminiscent of Chaos, the water monster from Station Square, but with a seemingly roboticized brain. It's spinal column and truly organic parts were made more like one of Robotnik's machines than of the legendary monster that had taken so many lives years past. Another of the military's sick experiments sent to ARK for storage.  
  
Apparently since all of the doors were opened, this advanced version of the station's drones broke out and started looking for targets. Since catching sight of the Mobian long ago, the hunt had been on.  
  
The monster suddenly jumped back and drifted away into the darkness. The squirrel ahead barely noticed the creature's absence before she and her companion came to a dead end. It was either go back or forward, into the air lock.  
  
A gurgling sound was heard and the drone's liquid body reformed. The robotic head drifted in ominously and settled into place where the cranium should have been. The eyes began to glow green with red dots scanning across them. When they finally settled on the reflections of both mobians, it squatted down low and held it's gangly arms wide. The cyborg raised her robotic appendage and waited for the creature to make a move. The tense situation wasn't helped by the jolts and rumbling heard around the colony every now and then.  
  
Of course nobody noticed the strange outline shoot down the hallway and slam the machine in the back of it's head. It sailed over the two mobians' heads and clattered against the air lock door. Both stared at the orange tinted halfling as she materialized and strolled past them.  
  
"Well what are you waiting for," she said to them. "Run! Get off this level! Now!"  
  
Confused as they were, both didn't hesitate to follow the order and promptly rushed off to the nearest stairwell.  
  
Sally looked over at a sheet-white Bunnie and asked," Was that Hazard?"  
  
"Ah don't know Sal-gal," Bunnie panted. "She looked different, more like an Overlandah' or somethin'. What ah do know is that she's gettin' ready to do something drastic."  
  
At that moment however, the person in question was leaning against the wall with a certain mechanical monster's head beneath her foot. "You're pretty sad for another GUN creation, pal," Hazard yawned. "But I'm gonna give you to the count of five to get your nasty little self away from me. One..."  
  
Watery body running down off the walls.  
  
"Two..."  
  
Coalescing into another body mass.  
  
"Three..."  
  
Growling again as it tests out it's movement without a head.  
  
"Four, don't say I didn't warn you..."  
  
Hazard kicks the head into to body, splattering it again somewhat.  
  
"'Yawn' Five." KRESH!!!  
  
With that, her hand slams through the near invisible safety glass over the airlock controls. A swishing sound is heard as the door at the end of the hallway groans. The drone looks back in fright and reassembles itself faster. It looks back to Hazard and sees nothing but motes of light drifting in the air. The door crumples inward and is sucked out into the inky blackness of space. As the entire level depressurizes a vacuum is created. The monster screeches at it's body instantly freezes and it's head is sucked out into space. It can only look on helplessly since it is too weak to levitate back towards the colony.  
  
"Now take a left here– no Tails, my left."  
  
"I'm trying," the pilot said. "But these directions you're giving me don't make any sense. We should be getting off the ARK, Sonic, not going further into it."  
  
For the last fifteen minutes, the young fox had been in radio contact with his friend and trying his best to get to his location. However there was something strange going on. Why would Sonic have contacted him like this if he already knew the rendevous point? Well he would found out soon enough, his signal was getting stronger. So the signal's source had to be nearby.  
  
"Just a little closer Tails," Sonic urged. "Just down this hall. Now make a right turn. I'll see you when you get here."  
  
Tails looked back and forth while his machine stomped heavily towards the room at the end of the hall. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing up and his swishing twin appendages swivelled, a sure sign that he was nervous. Something about this just didn't seem right.  
  
When he arrived in the usual lab chamber with a view of Mobius hanging in the field of stars, Tails immediately knew that stuff had hit the fan. Because when the twin doors behind him shut with a pressurized hiss, there wasn't any other way out. The fox scanned the door way and prepared to make himself an exit. "Relax, Tails," said Sonic from over the radio in a reassuring voice. But it was also coming from right behind him.  
  
When he turned the walker's port around, Tails didn't even think before locking onto the heat signature standing there. Blazes of neon light and bullets sprayed through the air. The young fox locked on and pulled the trigger until he'd depleted a fourth of his ammo. When the chafe settled, a bored looking Hazard moved her hand away from her mouth and cleared her throat. Tails noticed that her voice lightened from Sonic's tone to her own while she did so.  
  
"Are you done," she asked. "Because you'll tickle me to death with weapons like that."  
  
Tails locked onto her again with another volley of missiles, ready to fire instantly. "What do you want from me?"  
  
"To be safe. Your other two friends are somewhere safe as well. Do what you like, but I can't let you leave the ARK yet. Not until I'm down here."  
  
This confused Tails even more. He was about to ask another question when she vanished in a flash of light. He saw that the room was nearly bare except for an antiquated looking computer set up nearby on of the consoles on the far wall.  
  
'When in Rome,' he thought. He hopped out of the machine and began working. His first job: find out everything he could about Hazard.  
  
The path was littered with debris again. Apparently the meteor herding robots hadn't gotten to this part of the ARK yet. There were chunks of floating stone unaffected by the AG field all around the colony, but these were different seeing as each one had a strange trail of rings and greenish fluid following behind them. Hazard already knew that the green crap floating and oozing around most of the platforms was acid. That it was her that released the chemicals stored in tanks for the colony's labs. And that less than half an hour from now the Meteor Herd would deactivate it's artificial gravity and robots and all of the stone and ore there would plunge into Mobius' atmosphere.  
  
Most of the chunks would burn up, but unfortunately the chemicals would bond with the largest chunks and make them heat resistant to a degree. Their surfaces would burn, but they would fall to the planet's surface and cause considerable damage to the area in which they had landed. And the worst part of it all was that she and Whelpmon had rigged the back up AG generator to push the fragments into a trajectory that would make them land on the most populated human cities and settlements on Mobius. It was six in the morning and when the storm of flaming meteorites hit, no one would be prepared. Thousands would lose their lives. And it would be on her head.  
  
'I guess I'm wasting time think about it. Let's go!'  
  
And the halfling shot off down her platform and began bounding from one drifting chunk of ore to the next. It was tough going, trying not to incinerate herself in the floating pools of acid as well as dodging huge pieces of stone that collided with the paths that actually were online and keeping their position. This entire place was actually beginning to float into position, toward the point in space near the planet where it would begin to drop into the atmosphere. At least that was what would happen if Whelpmon's calculations were correct.  
  
Hazard thought about that for a second and pushed on even faster than before. Even for a digitized amnesiac, she had to give it to Whelpmon. His math was never off.  
  
Shadow heaved again and pulled himself up onto the broad stone platform. The world was covered in clouds and mists. Everything held a golden glow from the brilliant sunshine around him. It would have been beautiful... if it weren't for the other gold hued thing standing in front of him playing a Gameboy.  
  
Five minutes, Sonic said nonchalantly. Took me three to get this far. You're slippin' faker.  
  
They were in Sky Sanctuary, a pivotal place in the Aurora religion observed by the echidna race. A place that resided on Angel Island that could actually float on it's own. The sacred place is often visited by spiritual leaders, adventurers, and a hero or two. Today was no exception. Shadow had lost his initial race with Sonic and spent his time climbing more than a hundred stories of ramps and passing through teleporters on his way up. During his aforementioned five minutes, he'd never stopped once since Hyper Sonic told him he only had ten minutes to get there. It was either that or lose and play another Bonus Stage.  
  
The hedgehog had forgotten his plans for revenge when he'd been consumed in a massive sea of magma back in the Lava Reef Zone. Now he was more interested in trying to survive. Sonic had proven his mastery over the intense power within him when he cut off Shadow's ability to use the Chaos Control. He'd kept him from teleporting and advancing his speed, making his chaos emerald a useless chunk of green rock.  
  
Indeed, Sonic's newfound power allowed him to do a whole lot. In the past, collecting rings within a Zone let him become stronger and faster. But they also gave another ability that often left cryptic knowledge in his mind after calling for it. It led Knuckles to the King's sword. And it often kept him from being lost whenever he was somewhere he'd never been before. This same ability was intensified a thousand fold. All he had to do was think of an event or a person and he got a vision or an entire string of information.  
  
Let's see, he thought. What's going on with Sally and the gang?  
  
Princess - Friend - Love? - Cool - ARK - Safe - running- looking– for a way home. Both Bunnie and Sally were both wandering around the living areas of the ARK. Sonic pushed closer to their presence and peeked in on their thoughts. Sally was still being the ever curious one, trying to figure out who the orange person was who'd just saved them. Bunnie was trying her best not to think about the same issue, wondering how they would find a way to get home.  
  
He backed away knowing that they were both alright and closed in on Tails. Instead of having to look, Tails' spirit was lit up like a beacon. It must have had something to do with his destiny later in life. They always said he was supposed to be a hero greater than him and Knux. Maybe this was a sign? Oh well. Theorize later when everyone was home. He looked okay at the moment, hacking his way through the ARK's computer files.  
  
Sonic broke off that thread and tried to figure out what would make Shadow go ballistic like that. The little contest of his had made the black hedgehog burn off his feelings trying to Zone hop behind him, thankfully. But Sonic was still curious as to what actually started it.  
  
Shadow - Fake - Enemy - Friend? - Reason - revenge- was looping– He was lost again. For a while there Shadow was lost, wallowing in his own anger and depression again. It wasn't gone. It was just buried thanks to something or someone who'd pushed it away... Damn, that Hazard chick was really Maria? Small world. Hmm, if she's still alive now (which Sonic instantly knew she was) there must be a way to save her. Shadow said she was dying before their little spat.  
  
Oh well, I'll just have to save her, he thought. Not that she deserves it. But I guess if Shadow really cares that much about her, she can't be all bad. Alright. Let's find Hazard.  
  
Hazard - Maria - Cold - Thief - Hope - Plan -trying- fixing things– The little maniac was trying to fix things. She and that weird digimon thing that shot them down had planned something. A meteor strike on a bunch of human cities? How predictable. Sonic thought of a few different ways to aid in derailing the reformed thief's plan but couldn't think of any that fit him.  
  
He could obliterate the entire field of rocks and metal. Or he could pull Little Planet in the way of the barrage. He could turn it to gold and put it all near Knothole. Even better, he could aim them toward Eggman's installations. The sky was the limit... wait. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. Anything that he knew of was the limit. There would be consequences if he did something very detrimental.  
  
But what could he do with all that rock? Hey...  
  
Hazard hauled herself up the last rail that led to the AG field generator. She was about to shut it down when she smelled something in the air. The halfling looked up, knowing that the moment of no return was coming. And there it was. A greenish yellow cloud that blotted out the light that reflected off the planet. Being cautious about her approach, Hazard lifted off the platform with her Scorchers and flew up towards the closest meteor. She grasped the hand sized chunk and sniffed it.  
  
With a shrug of her shoulders, she reared back and took a bite out of it.  
  
What the heck is this all about, she thought. Is this...cheese? Is this all no more than two hundred tons of CHEESE?! How the heck did that happen?  
  
Hyper Sonic doubled over in a fit of laughter. Shadow simply looked at him as if he were insane.  
  
"Are we done here yet," Shadow asked, utterly disgusted with the whole experience.  
  
The shimmering being stopped his chuckling long enough to audibly answer," Yeah, yeah."  
  
It was sand... he could feel sand. A completely strange and gritty... sensation. The air was dry. The temperature was scorching. The sun almost burned, it beamed down so hotly. It was wonderful. But this was only the beginning. Phase One in a four phase plan. The sand was shifting again, but he heard no wind. There was a sound like thunder and the hum of power, but there was no light outside but that of the sun. He was here. Excellent. The perfect guinea pig.  
  
Hyper Sonic and Shadow appeared from a flashing ring that hovered in the air and then vanished. Shadow had never liked Robotnik's tomb base. It always smelled of oil from his countless machines and it reeked of age. Being figuratively as old as he was, he hated the smell of something rotting with a coating of dust. He'd ambled through the base in his spare time and hated the thought of the voices in the hallways that had no badniks to watch them. His eyes drifted back and forth through the ruins, scanning for the bulbous form of the ghosts that wandered the place. Even in the day.  
  
Sonic sat there wondering what had happened to him to make him so skittish about them. He'd dealt with ghosts in the past and none of them were even aggressive. They just tried their best to scared the living tar out of him.  
  
"I don't think they'll try anything while I'm standing here," Sonic boasted, holding up a glowing hand. "So you can quit your worrying."  
  
WAP!  
  
The gold hedgehog's head snapped to the side in surprise and very slight pain. Shadow had given him a vicious right hook that hadn't even been seen. His expression was still plain, bellying his feeling of intense embarrassment. Sonic looked at him and considered hitting him back, but left it at that. The message was already gotten: Don't go poking around my thoughts. That, and "Don't ever say that I'm scared."  
  
"How long is it until your friends and Hazard get here," Shadow asked.  
  
Sonic rubbed his jaw. "A good half hour or so," he muttered. "It won't be too much longer now."  
  
The black hedgehog looked his shining twin up and down before asking," How much longer are you going to stay like that? I was under the impression that a form like that doesn't last that long."  
  
Sonic snorted, an effect garnished by a few sparks flying from his chest. "I don't know. A couple more minutes, a couple more hours, maybe a day or two. I once stayed in my Super form for 2 days. It's a real rush pullin' pranks on people when you're way too fast to see."  
  
The embarrassment deepened. 'And people mistake him for me...'  
  
As both of them for the first time semi peacefully conversed, neither one of the speedsters noticed a small pinprick of light dance along the ground and then settle on the back of Sonic's head. The little spot of red moved from his head to the hedgehog beside him and back again. Phase Two had kicked in now. The euphoric feeling rushed through his mind. He'd know it's presence once before. He'd amassed it and dispensed it on others, but this feeling was an incredible high. The likes of which he had never felt before. Indeed, he never had the capacity to feel it before. But now. It was vivid and tangible, like something he could wrap himself in.  
  
He was secure in this somewhat alien feeling.. It felt right. His target was firmly locked in, suddenly he knew what this new sensation was swelling within him. It was as if he were what the organisms called God. In that moment in time he was all seeing and all knowing, and had what many creatures wanted. This incredible feeling.  
  
This unnamed new sensation. This pleasurable feeling was...power.  
  
And with this terrible definition in mind, he thought to himself,' Let us kill them both.'  
  
He raised both arms and locked onto the targets with his targeting computer.  
  
Distance = 40 m - Target speed = 0 mph - Targets locked - Ammunition loaded - FIRE at will  
  
SHOOM! SHOOM!  
  
Both shots rang out and the robot burst forward, firing off volleys of bullets behind his first two bolts of energy. Sonic and Shadow were caught unawares, even with Sonic's powers intact. The twin bolts hit their mark, momentarily blinding Sonic and winging his companion. While they were dazed, the storm of bullets showered the area. Bursts of dust and pulverized stone shot into the air around them. They writhed while countless slugs hit them.  
  
The robot strafed to their right and began charging his weapons again for another assault if they had somehow lived through the attack. The dust settled soon enough and Hyper Sonic's aura shone though, flaring red and violet. It pushed away the haze as well as the spent bullets that never penetrated either of their bodies. Though Sonic felt no pain, he was still mad at being sneak attacked again. However, Shadow had been hurt, if only a bruise or two from the bullets.  
  
"I knew I should have destroyed you when I had the chance," Shadow snarled. "Was this what you were planning? A simple little upgrade, you pathetic chunk of metal!"  
  
The robot had exchanged his red and orange colors for black and dark green. His pole-like legs had been replaced by actual working robotic limbs. His arms had been rebuilt with more girth for hidden energy blasters as well as pods on his shoulders that housed automatic weaponry. The body was still somewhat portly, but instead of being the storehouse of an obvious amount of hardware, it was equipped with armor that was particularly thick. The head still was the same ovoid egg top with bright red eyes.  
  
Eggrobo did something somewhat uncharacteristic for a badnik. He laughed. The robot opened a cavity on his right side and pulled out an orb to toss at his opponents. The two hedgehogs were moving before the bomb had even reached the top of it's arc. As it exploded, Eggrobo took to the air on a powerful set of jet engines built into it's back and limbs.  
  
It wasn't long before the chamber was filled with the sounds of gunfire and explosions. Each of the two heroes eluded the automaton's attacks easily, skipping over bullets and dodging missiles or grenades. Eggrobo seemed to have an entire factory's worth of ammo in that fat body of his. The walls were decimated by the impacts of his continuous hail of bullets.  
  
Sonic landed on the ground beneath the robot and then quickly flipped up in a spinning dervish of light. The world went white for a second and he was across the room. The left arm and leg of Eggrobo's body clanged to the floor heavily, still smoking.  
  
Sonic dashed by Shadow and grasped his arm. "Tag team!"  
  
The black hedgehog shuddered and then yelled out as he felt recharged. Sonic's touch pushed an unbelievable amount of strength cut off from him earlier back into his body. It was like it was before he'd undergone stasis decades ago. He was strong again. Knowing it was just a jumpstart, he knew exactly what to do to the treacherous badnik.  
  
Eggrobo shook in the air as he struggled to remain upright after having half of it's weapons cut off. Warning lights flashed on his HUD in the direction behind him. The robot's body rotated slowly to face this new threat with what was left of it's armor plating intact, but was caught as a line of black went through him. Then again. And again. And again. A dozen more times the sound of tearing metal was heard and Eggrobo just sat there suspended in the air.  
  
The madness stopped when the line of black stopped beside Hyper Sonic and ground to a halt as Shadow.  
  
Sonic looked over at his rival and squinted. "Wait for it," was all Shadow said before it happened.  
  
SHRACT!!  
  
In one fluid movement, every single piece of metal and equipment on Eggrobo's body tore away as if someone had tied a rope to every circuit and bolt and then pulled with a truck. The shrapnel flew in all directions, embedding itself in walls and slamming into the floor and ceiling until every chunk of the robot was no more. At the center of it all was a translucent green bubble. It stretched and bulged before setting down on the floor. And, finally, it collapsed with a simple 'pop!'.  
  
Both of the victors stared in shock at the occupant of said bubble. It was no more than two feet high with dark violet skin that was splotched with light blue. His right arm was still armored, but the left was bare, clutching with minuscule fingers a little circuit board. It opened it's sinister yellow eyes and smiled with jagged little teeth.  
  
The Chao cleared it's throat and said in a confident (yet somehow still cute) voice," Phase Three."  
  
Chapter 17  
  
"You're gonna love Phase Four," he said. The little creature hefted the circuit board high about it's head and screeched. The ear piercing wail echoed through the tomb, shaking sand loose from the walls. An eerie fog began to rise from the circuit board before it became a full blown cloud. A ripple, like that in a pond, went through the air and washed over everything. For an instant, everything was different. Sonic was himself, Shadow was completely red, and the chaos was something else completely. It only lasted for an instant, but that was enough to unnerve the both of them.  
  
All light was soon pulled from the room all at once. Everything became dark but Sonic and the chao. But unlike the chao, Sonic didn't have a red grid of light surrounding him. When Shadow saw that same grid, his thoughts immediately went to Whelpmon and what this monster had done to him to get this ability. But he couldn't worry about it for long seeing as the transformation was beginning.  
  
The chao rose up off of the ground and tossed away the circuit board into the mists. Five orbs of light gathered in the air around the short creature.  
  
"Activation code: Baal digivolve to..."  
  
The body of the chao lost all color but the grid and then doubled in size. Then tripled. It grew again until it was a vaguely tall human shape. Each one of the balls of light around it moved to the arms, legs, and head and then dimmed down until they were a part of the gray featureless form. The new monster began shaking until it forcibly ripped the grid from it's body. When the color came back, Baal's new form touched the ground and looked forward at the two shocked individuals who'd witnessed his birth.  
  
"Mechatamamon!"  
  
He looked like a human representation of his upgraded robot self. The body was covered in a black scale armor that shimmered green. His left arm was heavily armored with a riveted shield that ended in a large gun barrel. The other arm was the same until just above the elbow where a large pod-like attachment covered it until the wrist. He was equipped with rather large boots with strange rockets lining the back of the heel like Shadow's Scorchers.  
  
"Well, this is an odd configuration," Mechatamamon commented from behind his polarized helmet. "A superior mix of the organic and the robotic. I could not have asked for a more rewarding form."  
  
You knew anything about this, Sonic asked telepathically. I mean this isn't the kind of thing you overlook, Shad. But then again, you overlook a lot of stuff. Like: I survived falling through the atmosphere, I have a sinister sidekick who hates humans, and by the way, one of my best pals is a robot whack job!  
  
'You've made your point,' Shadow thought, annoyed.  
  
The newly evolved digimon amalgam stretched out his limbs and groaned. "If you're both ready," he began," I believe we can begin this slaughter."  
  
Shadow took one look at Hyper Sonic and took two steps back. The overcharged hero smiled and glided forward. He sized up Mechatamamon and laughed outright. This wouldn't even take a minute out of his time, two at the most if he pushed himself.  
  
Sonic's aura flared violently and threw off sparks in every direction. It looked as if he were in the middle of a blast furnace the way the excess pulsed and grew into pillars of light that shot skyward. Suddenly it was all gone and Hyper Sonic sat floating a few inches over the ground flashing seven distinct colors that Shadow had seen before. The hyper-charged Sonic said only thing before he shot forward: "Go!"  
  
The impending shockwave from the clash send Shadow stumbling backward. He'd given up trying to watch and just stood off to the side trying not to get involved for the moment. When he looked up again, he saw that the robot had actually blocked Sonic's blow with his oversized forearm attachment. He took notice of Sonic's need to constantly keep attacking, a never ending stream of loud and forceful strikes to all of the robot's exposed weak points. Every joint was kicked, every fragile point punched and chopped at with enough force that, even as his normal self, should have been enough to reduce anything operating machine that size to chunks of ragged metal and circuit boards.  
  
Yet, he was still standing. Worst of all, he barely moved. Sure, to block a hit here and there or to weakly counter. But nothing concrete. Like he was holding back... waiting for something. Was it an opening? Some kind of slip up that could leave Sonic ready to absorb some kind of big attack from that weapon of his? What was it?  
  
Sonic's movements became more like floundering. His hits stopped producing shockwaves when they connected with Mechatamamon's body. The sound of panting and fierce shouts filled the air more and more as time passed, all of it coming from the glowing hedgehog who never relented in his seemingly one-sided assault. Shadow peered at the both of them and then tried to feel deeper than what his eyes could perceive. It was hard with all of the distraction, but he finally managed to get within that place inside himself where everything was different. Everything flowed differently here. Different senses, almost illogical feelings that came and went, and this insatiable cord of... what was it? A sound? A chime? A vibration... yes, a vibration. Like a heartbeat, but, again, different.  
  
He focused his new senses on Sonic's conflict and was shaken from his perspective by what he felt. There was only one word to say when he knew there was no way to prevent it from happening.  
  
"Dammit," the black hedgehog muttered.  
  
Mecha sensed the moment was upon him and quickly jumped into Sonic's face. The sudden change in proximity of between he and his opponent put the hedgehog off his guard for a moment. A moment was all that was needed. The digimon viciously swung with his right arm and sent Sonic flying through the air toward the far wall.  
  
At the very top of his arc, Mechatamamon's pod arm transfigured into a smooth bore cannon that immediately began to charge. He quickly aimed it up at the spinning hedgehog.  
  
"Activation Code: Egg Blaster!"  
  
It was only one pulse of light followed by a trail of smoke that drifted away on the wind, but that was just the beginning. When it struck Sonic right over his heart, his body began to shudder and convulse uncontrollably. Much as it had when he first transformed. Another agonizing scream pierced the air and a scorched blue hedgehog slammed face-first into the wall. Hyper Sonic was no more.  
  
WHAP!  
  
The automaton caught Shadow's foot before he'd gotten a foot from his head. His left arm was still outstretched, and his right had moved seemingly without conscious thought. The black hedgehog flailed wildly in Mechatamamon's grip. His body contorted in every direction trying to break loose, but finding no way to release his foot.  
  
"Now that he's done," the smug digimon boasted," we can begin our fun."  
  
The robot's hands were a blur again and...  
  
KRAK!  
  
"Graaahh! Nnngg!" Shadow groaned in agony, doing his best not to cry out.  
  
The robot cruelly swung Shadow back and forth by his leg. The very same leg that had been broken into an obscene angle an instant before. The kneecap had been shattered and was a jumble of bone fragments that poked at the flesh within the hedgehog's leg painfully. Mechatamamon laughed gleefully like a chid with it's favorite toy. He would swing his injured adversary within arm's length of his body back and forth and then wring him around like a dog with a chew toy.  
  
All Shadow could do at the moment was push away the pain and try to find some way to escape and heal himself. That thought was abolished when the digimon tossed him in the air and grasped him by the other leg.  
  
Another crack was heard and the other leg was suddenly pointing in the other direction with a jagged red spike of bone pointing out just below Shadow's knee. The hedgehog still didn't scream and didn't do so the whole time he was twisted and broken again and again. Each time the response would become less and less until there was no sign of life in him but the look of intense hatred in his wild crimson eyes.  
  
"Why won't you scream for me," The robot puzzled aloud. He tossed Shadow against the wall where Sonic lay unconscious and brought back his arm cannon. The crumpled heroes laid there like discarded rag dolls, one a crooked wreck and the other dirtied and beaten down. They were just about as helpless as they were going to get.  
  
As the targeting sensors came back online, Mechatamamon wondered would all of his conquests be this easy?  
  
While it was true that they had no idea what they were dealing with, they shouldn't have attacked him directly. Who knows? They might have lived a few days after he'd killed Eggman.  
  
The robot took aim on the two useless sacks of meat and spines in front of him and began charging his attack again.  
  
"Activation Code: Egg Canno–"  
  
FWOOMPH!!  
  
The creature cried out in shock and for the first time, in pain. He jumped away and started frantically patting down the side of it's body that was engulfed in liquid fire. It actually burned. What? Why was he programmed to feel pain? Pain was an organic weakness. He was a cybernetic being and logically should have felt no pain... but he did. How could a creature composed of ones and zeroes feel pain?  
  
"Yeeaarrgh! Who? Who did that to me?" He cried out in anguish. "I'll kill - Aaargh!"  
  
Another attack hit him in the same side where his data was partially now exposed through the burnt through armor. It smouldered and glowed a dull red where the creeping super hot liquid kept spreading. More of it was spreading now that something else had reignited it.  
  
"What's the matter," a slightly rasping voice said sweetly. A ball of glowing fire and napalm appeared in the air and gave off a dull glow, already exposing her body. She went the rest of the way and dropped her invisibility. She stood with her back against the wall tossing the ball up and down in her palm. "Baby touch something too hot," Hazard teased.  
  
A small red dot appeared on the robot's forehead, scanning around until it was level with one of his eyes hidden beneath. He glanced left and saw the Cyclone with all of it's weapons at the ready. Tails was clutching his firing controls tightly. Ready to fire if the monster even thought about making another move on his friend.  
  
"Stalemate I suppose," the robot said through gritted teeth he didn't know he had.  
  
A cold wind kicked up. A freeze that cut right through the digimon's armor and made him shiver with it's intense cold. A complete counter to the burning that spread from his side through the rest of his body, it swept in from above and was descending. Streams of steam were coming from the slits in his helmet as the temperature around him dropped.  
  
Something seemingly poured itself from the sky. A tall black monster with two bladed wings and neon glowing glyphs all over it's body. The seams of it's armor were highlighted by the same color as it's eyes, a blazing violet shade that instilled fear in all who looked into them. The lean insectoid arms ended in wicked claws that were a parody on the human hand, sticking up out of the cuticles and overgrowing onto the fingertips. The face was almost completely devoid of features like a mouth or nose, looking more like a helmet with the slits on the front that breathed out white mist.  
  
"Not really," the apparition said before spreading his wings and then folding them back. His right hand snatched back over his shoulder to grasp at his wings and they detached to morph into a sword. Mechatamamon barely had time for an unnoticeable squeak before the strike hit.  
  
An explosion of light and sound shook the chamber, masking them both in silhouette outline. Sound was soon replaced by one phrase when the sword came out of the other end of the robot.  
  
"DEL SABER!!!"  
  
Nobody moved or even blinked when everything was done. Mechatamamon shook once and began to break down, bits of whispy green smoke and numbers breaking out from the long gash in the armor across his torso. Delmon could do nothing but laugh evilly as a grid formed on his body. Each one of them was changing again, becoming smaller in one way or another. The metals and alloys in the robot's body sloughing off to be replaced by blackness with scrolling ones and zeroes dropping down through it. Each part in the demon digimon's grid began to smooth out until he was of a rather human shape. Each sheet of the form began to flake off like chipping paint until he was left standing without any unnatural features.  
  
Mechatamamon however burst into a spray of pixels and vanished. However, something shot out of the mass and into the sky through the same hole Delmon had come through. It was gone the moment it was seen, out of sight but definitely not out of mind.  
  
_-_ Epilogue _-_  
  
"So what happens now," Sally asked, shielding her eyes from the desert sun.  
  
"Everyone goes home," Delmon's human form answered fondly, basking in the light. "Even me this time."  
  
"I thought you said you didn't know where home was," Sonic chimed in.  
  
It was an hour after the fight was over. Everyone had worked their way out of the pyramid and gone outside to sit on an airstrip and relax now that all of the threats had been taken care of. Nobody was as happy about being done with all of this as Delmon was after fighting for his life for hours in that lab before Tails found him while hacking into the security systems. It took some time for him to blast his way in, but he arrived just in time to help initiate the digimon's recovery systems.  
  
It took another half hour before Hazard gathered everyone up near one of the space transporters still online and left for Mobius. Nobody, aside from Shadow knew that Hazard had given Eggrobo permission to experiment on Whelpmon before her sudden change and that was the way it was going to stay. There was enough distrust in the air with her presence as it was. No need to make more.  
  
"I know," the human said," but now I remember almost everything. What my real name is, who my friends are, what happened to make me like I am... I know all of it. It makes me sad, but I'm glad I know now. All of my memories as Whelpmon are fuzzy at best, but I really don't care. I'm me again."  
  
"Good to see," Sonic said, trying to push away memories of the Delmon that was. He motioned toward Hazard and Shadow. "What about them?"  
  
Shadow was busy stretching after laying out on the ground for an hour, waiting for his legs to heal. Apparently it didn't take long for them to work as well as before when Hazard finally set them properly. That is, after a bit of yelling and grunting about not treating his legs like sticks when she set the bones incorrectly. All she did was retort and gently twist one of the fragments the wrong way so he would get the message: Shut your wordhole and let me do my job.  
  
After that she had not-so-mysteriously disappeared. The air wavered close to Shadow every now and then, signaling that she was closer than they thought.  
  
"Let them be. I have a feeling they'll be fine without our interference."  
  
The blue hedgehog pulled something out of his glove and tossed it out onto the dunes where it seemed to wink out of existence. "Another perfectly good Time Stone I've tossed away," he said wistfully. He then looked up at the human and pulled a strange device from the same glove. "Should I do the same with this?"  
  
"As soon as you can. It was never really meant to exist in the first place."  
  
Sonic looked at the heat wave warping around Shadow and asked," Her too? I know it's not right, but... I can't really wish she'd never existed, ya know. It might turn out to be a blessing in disguise."  
  
The human sighed and crossed his arms. "Maybe..."  
  
"Do you think we've seen the last of that super badnik," Sally asked. "It almost killed Sonic and Shadow. And after it died, I thought I saw something shoot out of the pixels it released."  
  
'You did,' the human thought. 'I wish it weren't true, but you did. And it'll be another mess to clean up later.'  
  
"Sure," he lied. "It's gone."  
  
It was then that Shadow strolled over, dragging Hazard with him. He propped he up in front of him and said," Do it."  
  
The dragon girl looked sheepish for a moment, like their stare were making her uncomfortable. She began to speak and then stopped. Then starting twisting her hair and smiling awkwardly before stomping on the ground and looking them each in the eye. Finally, Hazard breathed deep and then said," I'm sorry."  
  
And cue the group facefault... now.  
  
"I'm sorry for using you. And for trying to kill you. And for stealing from you. And for hurting you..." She continued, rattling off all of her offenses. "There, I'm done. Are we... cool now?"  
  
Sonic and Sally stared at her and squinted like they were looking for something. The mobians just shrugged when they found absolutely no lie in her apology.  
  
"Well, I guess so," Sonic said nervously.  
  
"Great," the halfling trilled as she jumped over and glomped the both of them. Sonic was scared witless at the prospect of that kind of pain shooting through him again and the princess was just surprised.  
  
However, the crushing embrace didn't hurt. Not at all. Sure, her bare arms were a bit overheated like the rest of her flesh, but that was about it. There was no rushing pain, no broken necks, no nothing. Just someone affectionately hugging her new pals.  
  
"Oh, sorry," she said, suddenly backing off. "Couldn't help myself."  
  
Sonic's left eye twitched. "It... d-didn't hurt."  
  
"I know. Shadow taught me how to keep that from happening. Just like he'll be teaching me a whole lot more about my powers, right Shad?"  
  
A smooth whack on the back of the head was followed after that remark. "You'll address me as Shadow only around others and when I'm instructing you," the black hedgehog said. "Let's try to remember that rule from now on."  
  
"Ow! Alright, Shadow."  
  
"Why don't you just come back to Knothole with us," Sally asked. "I'd bet St. John would love to have a good black ops agent or two on his team."  
  
"No thanks. We can take care of ourselves. Besides," he remarked, smirking. "We Ultimate Life-forms have to stick together."  
  
Hazard giggled. "Right."  
  
Bunnie chose that time to rush up to the group. "Hey, ya'll," she panted, out of breath from the running she'd done. "Tails said the Cyclone's all ready to go. Ya'll ready to go?"  
  
"In a sec," Sonic said, turning back to Shadow and his charge. "Uh, do you guys need a ride or... oh."  
  
They were already gone.  
  
"Of course," he muttered, following Sally and Bunnie. "Let's go guys. Last one home is a rotten Eggman." He looked back at the human who was looking into the sky. "I'll see ya around... um-"  
  
"Irvine," he answered. "Crimson Irvine."  
  
"Yeah. Later Crimson." And he was gone in a blue blur yet again down the strip toward his friends.  
  
(Begin "Somewhere I Belong" by Linkin Park)  
  
"Later..."  
  
The world around him began to warp and pull in upon itself. Strings of light started to lead from his body into nowhere and then stretch over the horizon. One of those strings pulsed in time with his heartbeat and then engulfed him. When the world returned to normal, he was gone.  
  
Special Thanks to  
  
Sega for creating Sonic Adventure 2 Dan 'Frieza2000' Fizz for his support and insight  
  
Spaz for inspiring me to draw and ultimately to create my own StH character  
  
And to who ever took the time out to read this. As one of my friends said: This stuff's long!  
  
Christopher Scott 


End file.
